Congress funds Trump concentration camps
Lauren-Brooke Eisen, Brennan Center for Justice
The legislation makes U.S Customs and Immigration
Enforcement the largest federal law enforcement agency, giving it $45
billion for building new detention centers in addition to $14
billion for deportation operations. It also includes $3.5 billion
for reimbursements to state and local governments for costs related to
immigration-related enforcement and detention.
The bill funds an expansion to approximately double
immigrant detention capacity, from about 56,000 to
potentially more than 100,000
detention beds. Private prison firms — many of which were significant
financial supporters of GOP candidates for Congress as well as the president’s
campaign — will reap major financial benefits from this spending, as nearly 90
percent of people in ICE custody are currently held in facilities run by
for-profit firms.
In May, the CEO of private prison company CoreCivic told investors, “Never in our 42-year company history have we had so much activity and demand for our services as we are seeing right now.” This budget bill will solidify that vision for CoreCivic, GEO Group, and other firms that manage and own immigrant detention centers and transportation subsidiaries.
Indeed, in anticipation of funding from the new budget, the administration has already started to enter into lucrative contracts with GEO Group and CoreCivic. And it has done so without going through the competitive bidding process under the theory that there is a “compelling urgency” to ramp up detention capacity.
The
contracts include the resumption of operations at the 2,400-bed Dilley
Immigration Processing Center in Dilley, Texas, which is operated by CoreCivic;
a potential reactivation of a detention center in Leavenworth, Kansas, to house
up to 1,033 detainees; and the reopening of Delaney Hall, a 1,000-bed detention
center owned by GEO Group in Newark, New Jersey. Further, there have been contract
modifications that allow ICE to use more beds at various private
facilities.
Trump has justified his immigration agenda in part
by making false claims that
migrants are driving violent crime in the United States. As the Brennan Center
highlighted, research has
found that immigrants actually commit crimes at lower rates than
native-born Americans. In fact, 72 percent of people in ICE detention
have no
criminal record. Further, for those in custody with a criminal record,
many have minor offenses, such as traffic violations.
Such lies help to justify the administration’s hostility to immigrants, documented or not. For example, the bill charges unprecedented immigration fees to people seeking Temporary Protected Status ($550 fee) or asylum ($100).
Children traveling without an adult will have to pay $250 to
obtain protected relief, and the cost of an appeal of an immigration judge’s
decision skyrockets from $110 to $900. These fees essentially create a
two-tiered system where only those who can afford these application fees can participate
in the immigration process in the U.S. or obtain due process.
But there is no possible justification, fictional or
otherwise, for the hastily built detention center for 5,000 immigrants in the
Florida Everglades callously dubbed “Alligator Alcatraz” by Florida Attorney
General James Uthmeier and White House officials. Florida plans to seek reimbursement from
the Federal Emergency Management Agency for construction of the makeshift
facility, but Uthmeier noted that security will be cheap because the remote
location is surrounded by alligators, pythons, and other dangerous wildlife.
Far from Capitol Hill, Trump drew attention to his
immigration enforcement agenda by visiting the makeshift facility in the
Everglades this week. And there are serious questions and concerns about
how detainees will have access to lawyers, medical personnel, and contact with
friends and family, in addition to a lack of clarity on oversight of the
detention conditions at the facility.
The plan to put hundreds of thousands more people in ICE
detention facilities comes at a time when DHS is blocking oversight of those
facilities. And there have been growing
reports of unsanitary, harsh, and unsafe conditions. At
least 10 people have died in immigration detention so far this
year, a rate nearly three times the number of deaths over the past four years.
Perhaps most troubling is the administration’s
outright defiance of
congressional oversight. ICE has denied numerous members of Congress access to
detention facilities and field offices as they attempted to check on conditions
for detainees — even though federal law provides members of Congress the legal
right to do so.
The law says that members of Congress and their staffs must
be permitted to “enter[], for the purpose of conducting oversight, any facility
operated by or for the Department of Homeland Security used to detain or
otherwise house aliens.” The law also says that no prior notice is required.
But in June, ICE issued a new policy asking for at least 72 hours notice for a
visit. It also claimed that ICE field offices are not covered by the law,
despite the fact that many field offices are being used to detain people for
multiple days.
This comes on the heels of the department eliminating the
Office of the Immigration Ombudsman and the Office of Civil Rights and Civil
Liberties, both of which performed critical oversight of immigration detention.
This level of funding for immigration enforcement to house
undocumented immigrants who do not pose a public safety threat is without
precedent. This spending spree is particularly troubling given the undoing of
the limited immigration detention oversight that existed to ensure humane
conditions of confinement.
