Since the start of fiscal
year 2010, Congress has allocated Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
the funds to incarcerate over 33,000 immigrants in deportation proceedings each
day (increased to 34,000 in 2013). This is known as the immigrant detention bed
quota. In fiscal year 2014, 32,163 immigrants were detained every day at the
cost of $2 billion dollars.[1]
More than a blatant misuse of tax dollars, the quota wreaks havoc on immigrant
communities, ramping up the deportation and separation of families.
Senator Robert Byrd (WV)
inserted the quota into the 2010 appropriations bill under guise of providing
enough detention beds for immigrants going through deportation proceedings. It
is the only legally mandated quota system within all federal and state
agencies. From the start, it has served as profit motive for private prison
companies like Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group. Between
2008-2014 CCA spent $9.8 million dollars lobbying the DHS Appropriations
Subcommittee, the home of the bed quota. Since 2009, the industry’s share of
immigrant detention beds has increased by 13 percent; now, these companies
operate sixty-two percent of
immigration detention beds.[2]
While detaining immigrants
to ensure they show up for court should be a last resort, the bed quota
encourages it. In 2013, ICE detained nearly 441,000 immigrants.[3]
Many of those incarcerated include asylum seekers, Central American families, and
survivors of torture and trafficking. Effective alternatives to detention (ATD)
exist, such as release on recognizance or bond, or monitoring with ankle
bracelets. ATDs range from a few dollars to $22 per person per day.[4]
This is a fraction of the $164 per day spent per person in detention. [5]
In the House, Congressmen Ted
Deutch (D-FL) & Bill Foster (D-IL) will introduce an amendment to strike the
quota language in the fiscal
year 2016 appropriations bill (which is negotiated in early fall). The Senate
has yet to introduce a similar amendment.
Implications of Quota
The quota has created
further incentive for the collaboration between local police and immigration
authorities in order to apprehend and incarcerate more undocumented immigrants.
ICE’s program Secure Communities, begun in 2008 and recently replaced with the
Priority Enforcement Program (PEP-Comm), has created a national database for
immigration violations, allowing local traffic stops to turn into immigration
proceedings.[6]
This incentive also shines through “show me your papers” laws like Arizona’s
S.B. 1070, which urges police officers to identify residents they suspect to be
undocumented, resulting in gross racial profiling.[7]
 |
| Source: Huffington Post |
While Congress languishes on
legislating any meaningful immigration reform, the quota remains. Private
prison facilities cut corners to cut costs: the facilities are often understaffed,
medical care and nutrition is reported as inadequate, and sexual abuse is
rampant.[8]
It results in more people being
ripped from their communities, detained and then deported. In 2013 alone,
438,000 undocumented immigrants were deported.[9]
Under the Obama administration, over two million people have been deported.[10]
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Policy
In 2003, the 215th General
Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) published a “Resolution Calling
for the Abolition of For-Profit Private Prisons,” stating, “the question of
whether human beings should be incarcerated…cannot be answered by whether or
not these steps will create profit for a corporation.”
Six years of this quota are too many. Let
Congress know that you want to #EndtheQuota.
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Learn more about the bed quota here.
[1] http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf
[2] http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf
[3]
http://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/ois_enforcement_ar_2013.pdf
[4] Alternatives to Detention (ATD)
History and Recommendations. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
[5] The Math of Immigration Detention, National Immigration Forum, http://immigrationforum.org/blog/themathofimmigrationdetention/
[7]
http://www.nilc.org/sb1070fouryearslater.html
[8] http://www.newsweek.com/operators-americas-largest-immigrant-detention-center-have-history-inmate-293632
[9] Includes immigrants apprehended at
the border and returned, as well as in-country removals
[10]
http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/02/u-s-deportations-of-immigrants-reach-record-high-in-2013/
