No Place for Immigrants - Policy Brief- Fall 2012
4
ri-County Detention Center in Ullin, Illinois, is 350 miles and more than six hours rom Ch icago. Like most immigration detention acilities, its location isolates immigrants rom the outside world and restricts access to legal counsel. Moreover, U .S. Immigration and Customs Enorcement (ICE) ails to provide adequate oversight, allowing human rights abuses to occur with impunity . For more than a decade, Heartland Alliance’ s National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) has represented immigrants detained at ri-County and conducted legal presentations to provide detained immigrants with an understanding o their rights. Trough the se visits, NIJC has gained an insider’ s view o ri-County’ s dysunction. Because o ICE’s ailure to hold the acility accountable and the ongoing human rights and due process violations at the acility , NIJC calls on ICE to end its contract with ri-County immediately. No Place for Immigrants A Policy Brief from Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center Fall 2012 Why ICE must end its contract with Tri-County Detention Center ri-County detainees who want to speak with amily members and lawyers are reliant on a broken communications inrastructure. Broken Communication “[T]here was one thing that was very basic that caught my attention, and that was lack of access to the telephone. … It may seem like a small issue, but to these immigration detainees it’s not. … They repea tedly raised with me their concern about their inability to communicate with the outside world, including their family. They said they couldn’t afford the phone calls that cost well upward s of $1.00 or $2.00 a minute that they’re being charged. We tried to use the phones, local phones, to see how they worked, and they didn’t.” 1 Tri-County Detention Center www.immigrantjustice.org Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) visited the jail in early 2012 and shared his alarming observations at an April 2012 Senate Judiciary Committee Department o Homeland Security (DHS) oversight hearing:
-
Upload
patricia-dillon -
Category
Documents
-
view
225 -
download
0
Transcript of No Place for Immigrants - Policy Brief- Fall 2012
7/29/2019 No Place for Immigrants - Policy Brief- Fall 2012
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/no-place-for-immigrants-policy-brief-fall-2012 1/4
ri-County Detention Center in Ullin, Illinois, is 350 miles and more than six hours rom Chicago. Like most immigrationdetention acilities, its location isolates immigrants rom the outside world and restricts access to legal counsel. Moreover,U.S. Immigration and Customs Enorcement (ICE) ails to provide adequate oversight, allowing human rights abuses tooccur with impunity.
For more than a decade, Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center(NIJC) has represented immigrants detained at ri-County and conducted legal
presentations to provide detained immigrants with an understanding o theirrights. Trough these visits, NIJC has gained an insider’s view o ri-County’sdysunction. Because o ICE’s ailure to hold the acility accountable and theongoing human rights and due process violations at the acility, NIJC calls onICE to end its contract with ri-County immediately.
No Place for Immigrants A Policy Brief from Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center Fall 2012
Why ICE must end its contract with Tri-County Detention Center
ri-County detainees who want to speak with amily members and lawyers arereliant on a broken communications inrastructure.
Broken Communication
“[T]here was one thing that was very basic that caught my attention, and that was lack of accessto the telephone. … It may seem like a small issue,but to these immigration detainees it’s not. … They
repeatedly raised with me their concern about theirinability to communicate with the outside world,including their family. They said they couldn’t affordthe phone calls that cost well upwards of $1.00 or$2.00 a minute that they’re being charged. We triedto use the phones, local phones, to see how theyworked, and they didn’t.”1
Tri-County Detention Cente
www.immigrantjustice.org
Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL) visited the jail in early 2012 and shared his alarmingobservations at an April 2012 Senate Judiciary Committee Department o Homeland Security (DHS) oversight hearing:
7/29/2019 No Place for Immigrants - Policy Brief- Fall 2012
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/no-place-for-immigrants-policy-brief-fall-2012 2/4
No Oversight, No Accountability
Despite noting several deciencies in its inspection documents, ICE gaveri-County a passing grade each year rom 2008 through 2011. Health andmedical services at the acility are unacceptable and grossly understaed. A2008 ICE report stated that “[c]urrent Health Services stang levels shouldbe reviewed to ensure adequate stang is available to carry out the currentmission.”4 ICE acknowledged that inadequate stang in this area would beproblematic. At that time, ri-County had seven proessional medical sta or anaverage population o 195 detainees. By 2011, ri-County’s detention populationgrew to an average o 211 detainees, but the medical sta dropped down to three,none o whom was a doctor. Nevertheless, afer 2008 ICE never again mentionedconcerns with the medical sta.5
Te acility received 475 requests and grievances rom detainees within aseven-month period but only 60 received a timely response. Despite this act,inspection documents and accounts rom detainees indicate that inspectorsrarely even talk to detained individuals during their visits.6
ri-County is the only privately run detention center in Illinois. ICE contractswith the county, which then contracts with Paladin Eastside PsychologicalServices, Inc. Tis arrangement diuses ICE’s accountability or upholding basichuman rights o immigrants in its custody as ICE has no contractual relationshipwith the entity caring or them.
“He’s not there for thedetainees. He’s not there tosee if they’re physically ok,if their health is ok, if theliving situation is ok. He was just there to cover a checkmark to show that there issomeone who came.”
- Asylum seeker Rashed
BinRashed on the single
inspector that visited during the 18 months he was
detained at Tri-County
NIJC lawyers ofen cannot reach their clients detained atri-County by phone even when they scheduled the call days inadvance. Such isolation rom counsel is particularly egregiousbecause immigration detainees are not appointed counsel inremoval proceedings. Tey must nd and hire lawyers, a nextto impossible task without a reliable way to communicate.Detained immigrants in the Midwest ace additionalchallenges to securing counsel because local nongovernmentalorganizations like NIJC do not receive government undingto conduct legal orientation programs.2 Te lack o resourcesmakes requent visits to remote jails ineasible. Statistics clearly demonstrate the consequences o such isolation: Detainedimmigrants with lawyers are ve times more likely to wintheir cases, yet 84 percent o immigrant detainees do not haveattorneys.3
No Lawyer, No Justice
2 - Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center www.immigrantjustice.org
No Place for Immigrants
7/29/2019 No Place for Immigrants - Policy Brief- Fall 2012
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/no-place-for-immigrants-policy-brief-fall-2012 3/4
Ongoing Human Rights Abuses
*Names have been changed to protect individuals’ identities
Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center - 3www.immigrantjustice.org
July 2012
7/29/2019 No Place for Immigrants - Policy Brief- Fall 2012
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/no-place-for-immigrants-policy-brief-fall-2012 4/4
Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant JusticeCenter (NIJC) is a Chicago-based nongovernmental
organization dedicated to ensuring human rightsprotections and access to justice or all immigrants,reugees, and asylum seekers through a uniquecombination o direct services, policy reorm, impactlitigation, and public education.
Tis publication is part o a campaign by theDetention Watch Network to end mandatory immigration detention. NIJC is solely responsible orthe content o this document.
Contact Alexis Perlmutter at (312) 660-1363 or
Endnotes
1. Transcript of Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on
Oversight of the Homeland Security Department, 41-42
(25 April 2012), http://www.micevhill.com/attachments/
immigration_documents/hosted_documents/112th_congress/
TranscriptOfSenateJudiciaryCommitteeHearingOnOversightOfDHS.
pdf .
2. American Bar Association, Reforming the Immigration System:
Proposals to Promote Independence, Fairness, Efficiency, and
Professionalism in the Adjudication of Removal Proceedings, 41
(2010).
3. Sam Dolnick, As Barriers to Lawyers Persist, Immigrant
Advocates Ponder Solutions, New York Times, (3 March 2011),
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/04/nyregion/barriers-to-lawyers-
persist-for-immigrants.html; Vera Institute of Justice, Improving
Efficiency and Promoting Justice in the Immigration System: Lesson
from the Legal Orientation Program (2008).
4. ICE inspection reports of Tri-County Detention Center for years
2007-2011 obtained pursuant to a Freedom of Information Act
(FOIA) request filed by NIJC (April 2011).
5. Id.
6. Id.
7. ICE data from IIDS v1.10 (17 January 2012).
Recommendations
1. Close ri-County Detention Center immediately.
2. Release rom detention those who do not pose a threat to the community or place them inAlternatives to Detention programs. According to ICE data, hal o the immigrants detained at ri-County as o January 2012 had no criminal convictions at all.7
3. Hold all immigration detention acilities accountable or the minimal standards o care set orth inthe 2011 Perormance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS) and end contracts with acilitiesthat reuse to comply.
4. Implement government-unded legal orientation programs in all immigration detention acilities.
5. Initiate quarterly monitoring o immigration detention acilities and publish its ndings and requiredremedies.
6. Immediately implement the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) to ensure accountability or sexual violence at ICE acilities.
Te administration and the Department o Homeland Security must end the human rights abuses at all immigrationdetention acilities nationwide. Specically, it must:
4 - Heartland Alliance’s National Immigrant Justice Center www.immigrantjustice.org
No Place for Immigrants
