Detention Facility Standards
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has, in the past, laid out standards and called for reform of the immigrant detention system. Unfortunately, ICE has not adequately complied with many of its own standards and continues to commit serious human rights violations. View information on ICE reform initiatives and detention standards here.
Year One Report Card: Human Rights and the Obama Administration's Immigration Detention Reform
On October 6, 2010 the Midwest Coalition for Human Rights, the National Immigrant Justice Center and Detention Watch Network released a report evaluating the Obama Administration's effort to reform the immigration detention system. The report, Year One Report Card: Human Rights & the Obama Administration's Immigration Detention Reforms, reveals a stunning lack of progress towards achieving the reforms proposed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) one year ago and highlights the persistent human rights violations occurring in U.S. immigration detention.
ICE Detention Reform: Principles and Next Steps
October, 2009 - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton today announced a series of new initiatives as part of the Department’s ongoing immigration detention reform efforts to enhance the security and efficiency of ICE’s nationwide detention system while prioritizing the health and safety of detainees.
The reform efforts address the seven major components of the detention system outlined in a comprehensive review conducted by Dora Schriro, the former ICE Office of Detention Policy and Planning Director, over the past several months, focusing on greater federal oversight, specific attention to detainee care, and uniformity at detention facilities.
Immigration Detention Overview and Recommendations
October 6, 2009 - This Report provides a comprehensive review and evaluation of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) system of Immigration Detention. It relies on information gathered by Dr. Dora Schriro, most recently the Director of the Office of Detention Policy and Planning, during tours of 25 facilities, discussions with detainees and employees, meetings with over 100 non-governmental organizations and federal, state, and local officials, and the review of data and reports from governmental agencies and human rights organizations.
View Dora Schriro's Evaluation of and Recommendations for ICE
Performance-based Standards
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is responsible for ensuring that immigrants who are detained are provided safe and human conditions of confinement while their cases are in immigration proceedings or are awaiting deportation to their home countries. Due to an increase in Detention and Removal proceedings since the 1990s, it quickly became clear that oversight was needed to ensure that immigrant detention was meeting the needs of detainees and facility personnel along with maintaining a safe and humane environment. As a result, 36 national Detention Standards were introduced in 2000.
In fall 2007, a group of more than three dozen legal aid, advocacy, and community and faith-based immigrant rights organizations, co-chaired by Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and the Chicago Bar Foundation, negotiated with ICE for the opportunity to review and comment on the draft performance-based standards. This group of non-governmental organizations, called the DHS-NGO Enforcement Working Group, submitted comments to ICE in March 2008, which the agency considered before preparing the final set of standards.
On September 12, 2008, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) released a new set of detention standards to govern the treatment of detained immigrants. The new "performance-based" standards, posted on the ICE website, replace the original detention standards that were negotiated in 2000.
This set of standards identifies a minimum level of custody conditions acceptable to ICE. The primary purpose is to have uniformity in treatment of detainees and the conditions of their confinement. However, despite these basic requirements, they are not legally enforceable, unlike the standards for criminal detainees. As a result, many detainees are unable to win their cases due to these obstacles, such as a lack of phones, access to legal counsel, and basic legal materials. In addition, recent reports have cited widespread problems with medical treatment provided to detainees and deaths that have resulted from improper detention conditions.
View the ICE Performance-Based Detention Standards
