Everything You Need to Know About Immigration Detention

Immigration detention is an inhumane and unjust practice of locking up immigrants when they are awaiting detention for their status as an immigrant or potential deportation.

In the FY or fiscal year 2019, the government of the United States detained more than 500,000 people in a reclining system of more than 200 jails throughout the country.

ICE Detention Centers Deprives People of Everything:

When we are talking about this particular abuse, ICE has an appealing response in this specific sector. 

Many of us will be shocked to know that the inmates of detention centers of ICE face terrible conditions. Some people are deprived of liberty, separated from their loved ones and family, and even denied access to lawyers.

They are also subject to severe medical neglect. Since the year 2003, more than 200 people have lost their lives when they were in ICE custody. Both with local governments and private prison companies, for example, CoreCivic, GEO Group, Inc., and ICE contracts.

And all these are for operating most of its vast network of facilities. This also includes dedicated immigration detention centers along with state and local jails, which is a model for developing a perverse financial incentive to keep people locked up.

Private prison companies make a profit through lucrative federal contracts, and the governments make money by padding their shrinking budgets. On the other hand, the Georgia Immigration Detention Center does not allow any inhuman practice.

The detainees in these centers include documented immigrants as well as undocumented immigrants. The centers do not segregate between the two. In some cases, there are also immigrants whose immigration status has expired and is under review.

How America Treats People in Immigration Detention?

The United States of America locks up:

• Survivors of torture.
• People who have lived here for several years might also have American citizen children and spouses.
• Visa holders.
• People are asking for asylum.
• People who get the grant will permanently reside in the United States of America and individuals with mental health and medical conditions.
• Some other vulnerable groups include families with children, even babies, and pregnant women.

But in reality, it does not have to be this way. And the Georgia Immigration Detention Center also believes the same.

Instead of taking them behind bars in immigration detention, people who are navigating their immigration case with their loved ones should be capable of doing so, and that too in the community.

Detention Numbers for the Fiscal Year 2019

Here is a chart with the necessary pieces of information that will help you understand the detention in the fiscal year 2019. Let’s have a look at it.

Thousands of foreigners, including Cubans and Haitians, were swept into private detention facilities of Florida like fodders. The coast of Florida became a hub for these private detention centers.  In some cases, the people in question  In the late 1980s, the immigration policy started to imitate the criminal justice system.

During this particular time, during the height of the War on Drugs, Congress modified immigration along with the Naturalization Act to require the mandatory detention of immigrants who have some specific criminal convictions.

This implies that their detention was compulsory and automatic, without even a single hearing or any consideration of their circumstances. This is the main reason behind the resistance of the Georgia Immigration Detention Center.

The history of immigration detention is a never-ending story. It is a bloody tale that will not come to an end till people stop creating this sense of ‘other’ or ‘subaltern.’  Therefore, it is not a sociological problem but a psychological one passed down from the times of Indian reservations.

Who Profits from this?

Regardless of your stance on the topic, immigration detention is a lucrative business, and many people are filling their coffers by exploiting the plights of these immigrants. This is the story of the profit and the blood money that people are making by ostracizing and locking up innocent people.

The number of cases that ICE deals with daily is just mind-boggling. Back in 2019, the average detention rate for ICE was around 50,165. Out of the total figure, around 90% of the detainees are detained in privately owned prison systems.

Around 79% of the total population in these prisons includes the minority races. This shows the overall disparity between races. Therefore, this mimics the overall racial mindset of America.

Private prison corporations are a recent development in the history of America and have already made considerable waves in the socio-economic fabric of America.

This story’s first development started in the 80s when GEO Group and Corrections Corporation of America lobbied to increase privately owned detention facilities. This started a whole new chapter in this bloody history of oppression.

According to OpenSecrets, The CoreCivic group of industries, formerly GEO Group, grossed around $551 million in 2021. Therefore, it is evident that American business people have started capitalizing on and marketing this form of oppression.

The saddest part of the deal is that this figure mentioned above pertains to one organization. Now imagine what the total gross profit of all other companies would be.

Therefore, it is understandable that the problem of ICE detention will be around for a while. Instead, these organizations would escalate the issue of illegal detention of immigrants to make profits and build empires.

Bottom Line

So, these are all that you need to know about immigration detention. In short, it is not only a way of restricting the immigrants from getting the facilities that others are getting but also torturing some of them to the extreme when found with a criminal record.

Read Also:

• Should You Worry About The Immigration Status Of Your Employees?
• The Opportunities For Professionals To Immigrate As Skilled Workers In Canada