Immigration Detention Reform is Necessary to Protect Public Safety and Save Taxpayers Money
Recent reports of inadequate medical care provided at immigration detention facilities, as well as mismanagement of COVID-19 outbreaks, have prompted calls for investigation into the conditions of these facilities.
Further, in 2019, Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Office noted that ICE has “systematically provided inadequate medical and mental health care and oversight to immigration detainees in facilities throughout the United States.”
All of this points to the necessity of reforming our immigration detention facilities, which help deter illegal immigration and also allow for quickly removing illegal immigrants who represent public safety or national security threats.
A coherent and conservative approach to immigration detention should center on keeping the public safe, managing costs and protecting civil rights afforded by the Constitution. Additionally, the evidence that detention helps deter illegal immigration is weak, and also incurs significant taxpayer costs. Coupled with the documented instances of neglect and abuse in facilities, it is critical to expand alternatives to detention and increase oversight of ICE and Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) facilities.
Background:
ICE detention is a form of civil confinement in which immigrants go through an administrative removal process. In FY2019, ICE detained more than 510,000 individuals, averaging a daily population of just over 50,000 people. These represent large increases from the prior two years in response to more apprehensions at the southern border and the Trump administration’s preference for detaining immigrants instead of releasing them on supervision.
Recommended solutions:
- Expand alternatives to detention (ATD): ATD, such as electronic monitoring and monetary bonds, can help save taxpayer money while also ensuring public safety. According to government analyses, more than 90 percent of participants comply with court orders and nearly 100 percent attend immigration court dates. ICE spent between $137 and $208 per person per day to detain someone in an immigration detention facility in FY2018, while the average daily cost per participant across ATD programs was $4.16 in the same time period.
- Narrow the scope of detention by reforming the Immigration and Naturalization Act (INA): A host of policy reforms—modifying mandatory detention programs, creating a statute of limitations for certain low-level crimes, separating asylum seekers and adjusting arbitrary monetary bonds—would ensure detention is better managed and used in cases where absolutely necessary.
- Increase facility oversight and accountability: A key reform to ensuring meaningful compliance at ICE facilities would be to vest inspection and discipline authority with the Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General (DHS OIG) or another independent auditing entity. Further, thorough inspections should be conducted annually, rather than once every three years, and facilities that failed recent inspections should be published on the DHS website.
To learn more about immigration detention reform, click here.
