Action Alert: Congress, Protect the Human Rights of Migrants!

It’s almost the end of July and the season of Congressional appropriations is in full swing! By September 30, Congress must pass 12 different appropriations bills to fund the U.S. government for fiscal year 2016.[1] One of these appropriations packages, the State Department and Foreign Operations bill, includes various forms of aid to other countries.

The House version of the bill (H.R. 2772) conditions humanitarian aid funding for Central American countries on their commitment to improving border security and interdicting migrants, particularly unaccompanied minors, trying to reach México and eventually the United States. [2]

The Northern Triangle of Central America-- Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras-- have erupted into levels of incomprehensible violence due to the rising control of gangs and lack of economic opportunity. The mass exodus of Central American children and families has been the result.[3] These conditional provisions in the bill seek to strategically keep Central Americans from ever reaching our southern border. The United States has already begun this process to externalize our southern border. Since last year, the U.S. has funded, armed, and trained Mexican, Honduran, and Guatemalan law enforcement to stop migration from Central America, without regard to the well-being or human rights of migrants.[4] The provisions in the House bill would amplify these efforts to keep Central Americans from exercising their internationally guaranteed right to flee trafficking, persecution, and violence as asylum seekers [5] to the United States and other countries.

We must not continue down this path. Instead, we should be investing in protection and post-repatriation services for migrants, along with addressing the root causes of migration—violence and poverty.

Contact your Senator and Representatives about appropriations for Central American countries!

The Senate version of the bill (S. 1725) does not include these damaging conditions. It does, however, include positive provisions to condition assistance to Northern Triangle countries on their efforts to combat corruption and ensure transparency, protect human rights, implement policies and reforms to address root causes of poverty and violence, and reform the police and the role of military forces in policing, among many.[6]

When the House and Senate go to conference to reconcile their two bills, we want provisions like those in the Senate bill to remain and border security provisions like those in the House to be eliminated.

What does the PC(USA) say about asylum-seekers and refugees?

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has affirmed many times (1990, 1994, 1999, and 2014) [7] the need for U.S. immigration policy to protect the rights of refugees and asylum-seekers, in accordance with the Gospel mandate to care for the most vulnerable.

In 1990, the 202^nd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) resolved that any immigration-related policy must “uphold international standards and accords regarding protection to refugees and persons in refugee-like situations…” and “address the U.S. economic, political, and military policies that may contribute to conditions compelling human displacement and migration.”[8]

Tell Congress that you want your tax dollars to protect, not transgress the rights of migrants.

Primarily Central American migrants board a Mexican freight train known as
 'La Bestia," "The Beast" to reach the U.S. border.
Source: www.macleans.ca 

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[1] The past few years, Congress has not passed all twelve bills before the deadline, so all twelve bills have been wrapped into one “omnibus bill.” Read more here: https://www.nationalpriorities.org/budget-basics/federal-budget-101/federal-budget-process/

[2] https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/2772?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22%5C%22hr2772%5C%22%22%5D%7D

[3]http://www.wola.org/commentary/3_myths_about_central_american_migration_to_the_us

[4] http://jesuits.org/Assets/Publications/File/US_Border_Externalization_2014_v1.pdf

[5] http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/

[6] https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/senate-bill/1725/text?q=%7B%22search%22%3A%5B%22%5C%22s1725%5C%22%22%5D%7D

[7] 35.143. Pp 520; 30.141. Pp. 243; “Transformation of Churches and Society through Encounter with New Neighbors.” PC(USA) Statement. Pp. 353-355; Commissioner Resolution. On the Global Crisis for LGBT People and Their Families: A Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Response. 09-20. http://pc-biz.org/PC-Biz.WebApp_deploy/(S(ips21ra3w0zttk2dvlduyrgf))/Explorer.aspx?id=5073

[8] 35.143. Pp. 520.

Faith Groups Join Call to End Family Detention

Rev. Dr.  J. Herbert Nelson II met with White House staff, representing the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), along with representatives of 17 other faith groups, to discuss the need for a decisive end to family detention. The press release, with his statement, is below. 

Also, find it on the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) website here.

Check out some great resources and action items on family detention on the Office of General Assembly's page.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

May 25, 2015

Contact: Shaina Aber, 202-629-5918, saber@jesuits.org

FAITH GROUPS JOIN CALL TO END FAMILY DETENTION

Washington, DC – Last Thursday, May 21, a group of 18 faith leaders met with White House Staff to call for the end to family detention, delivering a letter signed by nearly 1,500 faith leaders from around the country. These leaders join calls by a growing number of Congressional members, civil society groups, and advocates to end this inhumane practice once and for all.

The U.S. government reinstated family detention in response to the arrival of 68, 684 family units at the U.S./Mexico border in 2014. Currently, over 1500 refugee mothers and children from Central America are being incarcerated in three detention centers in Karnes City, TX; Dilley, TX; and Berks County, PA. In 2009, the Obama administration closed the T. Don Hutto detention facility in Taylor, Texas due to complaints of abuse and poor conditions. Advocates and those currently detained report similar abuse as well as inadequate nutrition and medical care.

A lawsuit challenging the administration on this practice was set to be resolved this weekend, but negotiations between the parties have been extended until June 12, with a final agreement expected on June 19. Administration attorneys maintain that detention allows for greater flexibility in responding to surges of unauthorized migration.

Below are statements from faith groups that participated in the White House meeting:

“As Jesuits we stand in solidarity with the mothers, infants, toddlers, children and teens being unjustly incarcerated in so-called “family immigration detention” facilities. The overwhelming majority of these children and mothers are asylum seekers who fled unspeakable violence and are searching for safe-haven within our borders. We call on the Obama Administration to end this corrosive and immoral practice immediately. These families are not flight risks, they quite obviously pose no danger to our communities. There is simply no excuse for the continued detention of mothers, children, toddlers and babies in any immigration detention facility in the United States. This shocking practice should not be the legacy of President Obama’s policy toward refugees and immigrants.” —Very Rev. Fr. Timothy P. Kesicki, SJ, President of the Jesuit Conference of the United States and Canada

“Family detention conflicts with the very core of the Quaker principle to honor that of God in each person. Any policy that detains families, asylum seekers or refugees is both immoral and illegal under U.S. and international law. We believe that family detention allows private prison corporations to profit off of migrants’ desperation. We call for an end to all family detention -- it is dehumanizing and it inhibits access to legal assistance. We’ve also seen that it damages physical, mental and familial health. And, worst of all, it is completely unnecessary.” — Diane Randall, Executive Secretary, Friends Committee on National Legislation

“In the name of justice and mercy, I call on the administration to change its response to the desperate cry of refugee mothers and children fleeing violence and crushing poverty in Central America. Instead of offering protection and opportunities to pursue their asylum cases, we have locked them up en masse, replicating the trauma from which they flee. With this two-week delay on the final outcome of the court case challenging this practice, these mothers and children continue to suffer. We are a better nation than our actions demonstrate; mercy for these mothers and children ought to be our only option at this time. Family detention must end now.”

— Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson II, Director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness

"Over the next two weeks, Sisters of Mercy ask the Obama administration to take immediate actions to end the shameful policy of incarcerating refugee woman and children. President Obama's decision to comply or to appeal Judge Dolly Gee's ruling will determine his legacy on immigration, as much as his fight for comprehensive immigration reform and deferred action."

– Sr. Patricia McDermott, President of the Sister of Mercy of the Americas.

“Mass detention shatters families and traumatizes children. The extension of time for agreement in the court case on family detention means these women and children will continue to suffer. Since the Order was formed in the early 19th century in France, the Sisters of the Good Shepherd have dedicated their lives to protecting women and children.  They condemn this detention of innocent people. As Director of the The National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, and speaking on behalf of the Sisters and lay staff in 74 countries, I strongly urge the government to immediately end this shameful detention policy.” — Lawrence Couch, Director of the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd

“Many within our Disciples of Christ churches are deeply concerned about the practice of family detention, which has re-emerged in the past year as a method for housing children of all ages and mothers who have fled to the United States to seek protection from horrific violence in Central America.  Nearly all are eligible for asylum.  We have prayed, visited, and supported the spiritual care of these vulnerable populations, and continue to urge the Obama administration to turn away from the practice of family detention, which locks up children in unlicensed facilities often run by for-profit prison companies.  Instead, we urge the administration employ much more humane alternatives to detention which promote healing and offer legal and mental support and hope for God’s children.”— Rev. Dr. Ron Degges, President of Disciples Home Missions      

Ecclesio.com Conversation on Money in Politics: Caught in the Net of Corporate Greed: Our Immigrant Sisters and Brothers

This week, May 18-22, Leslie Woods, Representative for Domestic Poverty and Environmental Issues in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Office of Public Witness, is guest-hosting a conversation on money in politics on Ecclesio.com. Today's article is written by OPW Young Adult Volunteer AmyBeth Willis, exploring the links between for-profit corporations and the incarceration of immigrants. 

“You cannot serve God and wealth.” – Matthew 6:24b

At any given time in the United States of America, 34,000 jail beds are made ready for immigrants to fill. According to the April 2015 report by the advocacy group Grassroots Leadership ‘Payoff: How Congress Ensures Private Prison Profit with an Immigrant Detention Quota’, sixty-two percent of these beds are now operated by private prison corporations, which rake in millions of profits from government contracts. Immigrants are now the largest market for these corporations.

Moreover, millions of dollars have been poured into the federal justice system to fund  the salaries of privately contracted defense attorneys, for example and into internal immigration enforcement, to accommodate the arrest, prosecution, detention, and deportation of immigrants. Immigrant detention has contributed to the 500 percent increase in our nation’s incarcerated population. In 2013, immigrants made up 10 percent of the federal prison population. This mass detention of immigrants has helped to increase the number of deportations. Under the Obama Administration, two million people have been deported. [1] This system is an affront to the Christian values of acting justly and welcoming the stranger.

History

The boom in modern immigrant detention began in the 1980s when the Immigration and Naturalization Service (now the Department of Homeland Security, DHS) signed a contract with the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) to detain immigrants in response to the surge of immigrants from Central America. In 1996, the Illegal Immigration Reform and Responsibility Act mandated that undocumented immigrants with criminal convictions be detained without bond; it also removed judicial discretion to review asylum cases of undocumented border crossers.

After September 11, 2001, INS was renamed the Department of Homeland Security and split into U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). This blurred the distinction between civil and criminal immigration enforcement. At the same time, from 2004 to 2012 the number of Border Patrol Agents on the ground rose by 85 percent, increasing apprehension capacity. [2]

The Immigrant Detention Bed Quota

In the mid-1990’s our country detained around 7,000 immigrants per day. Between 2000 and 2006, the number of detained immigrants hovered around 20,000. In 2009, Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) added language to the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 Appropriations bill instituting a quota of 33,400 detention beds. It has been renewed in the yearly federal budget since then, increasing to 34,000 in 2013. The market has caught up with this demand through the expansion of the private prison industry; its size has risen by 47 percent in the last ten years.[3]

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement maintains 82 detention centers across the nation to hold immigrants under removal proceedings. In fiscal year 2014, 32,163 immigrants were detained per day; this costs taxpayers two billion dollars per year, or five million dollars per day. [4]

The centers are concentrated in Arizona, Texas, and Georgia, with the rest scattered throughout the Midwest, Northeast, and Southeast. In addition, the Federal Bureau of Prisons incarcerated 19,100 immigrants found in violation of federal immigration laws in 2013. This is separate from those detained by ICE under deportation proceedings.

Private Prison Industry Control

Out of eight private prison corporations, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and GEO Group dominate the private prison industry; currently they each run twelve ICE-contracted facilities. Together they run eight out of the ten largest immigrant detention facilities in the nation. Since the implementation of the bed quota, CCA saw its profits rise from $133 million in 2007 to $195 million in 2014. In the same period, GEO Group’s profits rose by 244 percent from $41.8 million to $143.8 million. [5]

CCA and GEO Group’s domination of the industry did not occur by accident. From their start, both companies have captured the immigrant detention market through federal lobbying. Between 2008 and 2014, together they spent $16 million dollars. At the same time, the private prison industry donated “over $132,000 in campaign contributions to members of Congress on the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, the birthplace and point of control for the immigrant detention quota.”[6]

Other companies stand to gain from increases in immigrant detention. G4S Wackenhut, a security company connected to GEO Group, also profits from the increased enforcement and detention of undocumented immigrants. They were first subcontracted in 2006 to transport immigrants to Border Patrol Stations after being apprehended in the borderlands. Their contract was renewed in 2013 for $234 million dollars. Once under Border Patrol custody, immigrants are detained for three or four days, often subjected to abuse anddeprived of food or water.

Why Detain?

Although patterns of migration to the United States ebb and flow with U.S. economic productivity, the government maintains that detention is a deterrent to future immigration. [7] A 2013 report “In the Shadow of the Wall,” published by the University of Arizona and George Washington University “found that the majority of migrants intended to cross again, that the effect of deterrence was difficult to measure, and that deterrence has a limited impact compared with other factors such as family and economic need.”[8] As deterrence policies gain steam, migrants attempt to cross through more dangerous and remote terrain, resulting in more deaths on the border.[9]

More than detention itself, the increasing privatization of these prisons is hailed as a cost saving mechanism. However, Gary Mead, a former ICE Executive Associate Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations, admitted that no independent studies have verified whether private prisons really cut costs.[10]

The government also claims that many immigrants present a flight risk as they undergo removal proceedings and therefore need to be detained. [11] Yet, the rise in apprehensions and detention has meant that the average wait time for a final ruling in an immigration court case is 550 days, greatly prolonging that detention.

Policies Promote Apprehension and Subsequent Incarceration

Policies such as Secure Communities and Operation Streamline and aggressive state laws such as S.B. 1070 in Arizona assist in the criminalization, apprehension, and detention of immigrants.

Secure Communities (S-Comm) was implemented in 2008 to aid the collaboration between the FBI and local law enforcement to detect national security threats. However, ICE uses it to enforce the nation’s immigration laws. When someone is arrested, their fingerprints are searched against  a national database to identify immigration violations. The program PEP-Comm, Priority Enforcement Program, replaced S-Comm in early 2015, but several of its problematic aspects remain.

In 2005, Operation Streamline began in Del Rio, Texas to fast track the prosecution of border crossers en masse. Six U.S/Mexico border cities followed suit, citing Streamline as a strategy to deter migration. In Tucson, Monday through Friday, up to 70 migrants are charged with illegal reentry, convicted and sentenced to one to six months of jail time within a short afternoon proceeding. Now, the majority of defense attorneys for migrants are privately contracted.[12] This initiative costs Arizona $120 million in court proceedings.[13] Yuma, Arizona, recently rolled back its use of Streamline because of exorbitant costs.

The state of Arizona passed S.B. 1070 in 2010 to re-classify state crimes related to immigration or legal status. CCA as a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an organization of state legislators, large corporations and corporate associations, was a part of the task force that drafted the law. [14] Thirty of the thirty-six legislators who co-sponsored the bill received contributions from three different private prison corporations.[15] S.B. 1070, dubbed the “show me your papers” law, encouraged local police officers to identify residents they suspect to be undocumented. Since its implementation, it has resulted in rampant racial profiling of Latinos in the state. In 2012, the Supreme Court did not challenge the “show me your papers” part of the law; this meant racially motivated stops and incarceration have continued. Copycat state legislation in Utah, Georgia, Indiana, Alabama, and South Carolina followed, but courts have struck down the harshest parts of these laws.[16]

Family Detention

One of the most egregious forms of immigrant detention re-entered the stage last summer: family detention. Thousands of Central American families (68,684 family units arrived here in 2014) fled from violence, gang activity, and poverty to our borders, seeking a safe haven. ICE, at the Obama Administration’s direction, began to detain these mothers and children. Jeh Johnson, Secretary of Homeland Security, claims that, “family detentions were meant to send a signal to other immigrants that they would not be simply released into the U.S. if they crossed the border.”[17] According to the American Immigration Lawyers Association, the majority of these families would qualify for asylum with proper legal representation.

This also has not occurred by accident– CCA and GEO Group lobbied heavily to secure contracts for family detention centers in South Texas. In June of 2014, family detention bed capacity was 90; by June of 2015 around 4,000 beds will be available. [18]

Advocates visiting these facilities have documented dehydrated and undernourished children. CCA operates the massive, 2,400 bed South Texas Family Residential Center, which opened in Dilley, Texas, in December of 2014. Recently, a group of mothers at the Karnes County Residential Center (operated by GEO Group) in Karnes City, Texas, have gone on two separate hunger strikes to protest the impact of incarceration on their children, as well to bring to light the harsh conditions, and the mistreatment by officials in the facility. [19] In 2009, the Obama administration closed the T. Don Hutto Residential Center (managed by CCA) in Taylor, Texas; there, children were forced to wear prison garb and access to medical care and nutrition was inadequate. [20]

Our Faith Call

Immigrant detention flies in the face of the core values of our Christian faith. For God calls us in Exodus 22:21 to not “mistreat or oppress a foreigner.” We also must recognize and welcome Christ in the stranger (Matthew 25:35). Jesus warns us in Matthew 6:24 that “No one can serve two masters. You cannot serve both God and money.” Privatized immigrant detention is a glaring example of how our nation’s policies serve moneyed interests over the common good. The very essence of corporations whose profits grow through the exploitation of immigrants is sinful. Thousands of our migrant brothers and sisters pay the price of this greed.

AmyBeth Willis hails from Murfreesboro, TN, and is a 2013 graduate of Emory University in Atlanta, GA.  In college, she studied Sociology, Religion and Spanish.  She spent the 2013-2014 year as a Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) at Southside Presbyterian Church in Tucson, AZ.  She is currently serving her second YAV year in the PC(USA) Office of Public Witness, in Washington, DC. She is passionate about the connection between her faith and justice work, especially in the areas of immigration, advocacy, and education.

[1] http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf

[2]http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/race-multicultural/lost-in-detention/map-the-u-s-immigration-detention-boom/

[3]http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf

[4]http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf

[5]http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf

[6]http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf

[7] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/isabel-garcia/op-ed-response-to-senate-resolution-104_b_7154378.html

[8] http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/2014/10/17/operation-streamline-unjust/17444829/

[9] http://forms.nomoredeaths.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/nmd_fact_sheet_operation_streamline.pdf

[10]http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf

[11]http://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/node/2381

[12] http://endstreamline.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/OSL-estimated-costs.FY2013.pdf

[13] http://forms.nomoredeaths.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/nmd_fact_sheet_operation_streamline.pdf

[14] http://www.npr.org/2010/10/28/130833741/prison-economics-help-drive-ariz-immigration-law

[15]http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf

[16] http://www.nilc.org/sb1070fouryearslater.html

[17] http://www.ibtimes.com/immigrant-mothers-begin-second-hunger-strike-massive-texas-detention-center-1883194

[18]http://grassrootsleadership.org/sites/default/files/reports/quota_report_final_digital.pdf

[19] http://www.ibtimes.com/immigrant-mothers-begin-second-hunger-strike-massive-texas-detention-center-1883194

[20] https://www.aclu.org/aclu-challenges-prison-conditions-hutto-detention-center

Action Alert: Tell Congress to #EndtheQuota

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 215^th 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.

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[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/

[6] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/race-multicultural/lost-in-detention/map-the-u-s-immigration-detention-boom/

[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/

Breaking the Chains on EAD Lobby Day 2015

Today, hundreds of Christians, including Presbyterians, will converge on Capitol Hill for meetings with the offices of their Senators and Representatives following PC(USA) Compassion, Peace and Justice Training Day and Ecumenical Advocacy Days. This is the culmination of an Advocacy Training Weekend of learning about mass incarceration and systems of exploitation through keynote speakers, workshops, training, worship, and discussion time.

 

During these meetings today, these Christian advocates will be addressing these two issues –

 

1.     Eliminating the Immigrant Detention Bed Quota (in effect since 2009), a federal budgetary mandate stating that “34,000 detention beds” must be filled at any given time. In order to fill the detention bed quota law enforcement targets immigrants and detains them in mostly private detention centers where human rights abuses run rampant.

  

2.     Ending Mandatory Minimum Sentencing. Mandatory minimum sentences are      excessive and contribute to significant racial disparities in the federal prison system.

 

Both of these problems have contributed significantly to the explosion of incarceration in the United States.

 

Join fellow advocates by urging your Senators and Representatives to pass make these important policy changes. Click here to write to your Members of Congress today!

Striking the Quota from Appropriations bills

 

In the House, Congressmen Deutch (D-FL) and Foster (D-IL) will introduce an amendment to strike the quota language in the Fiscal Year 2016 Appropriations bill. Ask your Representatives to vote in favor of this amendment and garner support for the elimination of the quota. Detaining people just to meet a quota and to pad the profits of private prison companies is not only unjust. It is bad policy.

 

Smarter Sentencing

 

To address mandatory minimum sentencing, urge your Senators and Representatives to support the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015 (S. 502/H.R. 920), sponsored by Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representatives Raúl Labrador (R-ID) and Bobby Scott (D-VA), and the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2015 (S. 353/H.R. 706), sponsored by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Patrick Leahy (R-VT) and Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Bobby Scott (D-VA).

 

The Smarter Sentencing Act would limit long mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, expand judicial discretion in cases involving the lowest level drug offenses, and reduce the federal prison population by retroactively implementing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010 (a significant reduction in the sentencing disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine).

 

The Justice Safety Valve Act would restore judicial discretion in all federal criminal cases by allowing the broadest departure from mandatory minimum sentences.

 

Read a detailed description of the lobby day ask here.

 

What does the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) say about these issues?

 

In 1910 the General Assembly declared that the church ought to stand “For the development of a Christian spirit in the attitude of society toward offenders against the law. The Church holds that a Christian society must seek the reformation of offenders…” (Minutes, PCUSA, 1910, Part I, p. 232). 

 

In 1988, the 200^th General Assembly reaffirmed that “individual Presbyterians and the entities of the General Assembly . . . advocate a social order where compassion and justice characterize efforts toward those in the criminal justice system.”

 

In 2003, the 215^th General Assembly stated in a “Resolution Calling for the Abolition of For-Profit Private Prisons” that “the ultimate goal of the criminal justice system should be restorative justice, addressing the hurts and the needs of the victim, the offender, and community in such a way that all might be healed.” Moreover, it states, “Since the goal of for-profit prisons is earning a profit for their shareholders, there is a basic and fundamental conflict with the concept of rehabilitation as the ultimate goal of the prison system.”

 

Join fellow Christians in this the lobby day by contacting your Senators and Representatives today.

2015 Ecumenical Advocacy Days Lobby Day Ask

On Monday, April 20, hundreds of Ecumenical Advocacy Days participants from around the country will meet with the offices of their Senators and Representatives to address these justice issues, after a weekend of education and training on the issues of mass incarceration and systems of exploitation.

We call on Congress to reform federal criminal justice and immigrant detention policies toward the goal of ending unfair, unnecessary, costly and racially biased mass incarceration:

·       Adopt criminal justice and sentencing reform policies that incorporate an end to mandatory minimum sentencing;

·       Eliminate the detention bed quota for immigrant detention.

End Mandatory Minimum Sentencing

We urge Congress to support federal criminal justice reform legislation that would:

• Allow judges the discretion to fully consider the circumstances of individual cases to arrive at the most appropriate sentencing decision.

• Strike or reduce mandatory minimum sentences.

• Shrink the size of the federal prison system, particularly among people convicted of nonviolent and low-level offenses.

• Eliminate racial disparity and racial bias in sentencing.  

• Prioritize alternatives to incarceration for individuals who pose little threat to public safety, and ensure accountability without the use of excessive punishment.

• Overall, federal sentences are excessive given the level of culpability for the average federal prisoner. Half of the federal prison population was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison and 25% was sentenced to between 5 and 10 years in prison. Twenty-six percent of prisoners are serving sentences for violent offenses and about half are serving sentences for drug offenses. U.S. Sentencing Commission research indicates that nearly one-third of federal prisoners have little or no criminal history.

• Mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses have created significant racial disparities within the federal prison system. The U.S. Sentencing Commission has also found that Black and Hispanic defendants constitute the majority of people subject to mandatory minimum sentences and existing opportunities for relief from them are less often available to African American defendants. In 2011, the U.S. Sentencing Commission found black defendants were more likely to receive mandatory minimum penalties, in 60.6% of drug cases carrying such a penalty. Hispanic defendants were sentenced to a mandatory minimum in 41% of such cases and whites in 36.3%.

• Excessive sentencing practices, exacerbated by mandatory minimums, created an overcrowding crisis within the federal Bureau of Prisons. During fiscal year 2013, the federal prison system was 36% over its rated capacity. For high and medium security male facilities, capacity exceeded 50% and 45%, respectively. This overcrowding creates a dangerous environment for prisoners and staff because of an increase in misconduct caused by the strain of the deteriorating prison conditions. Prisoners now face triple or quadruple bunking in cells and many recreational areas have transitioned into dormitory space.

• Over three decades of unchecked growth in the federal prison population has burdened the federal criminal justice system and produced increasing costs that are unsustainable. In 1980 the federal prison population was approximately 25,000 and cost about $330 million. By fiscal year 2014 the population had grown to 216,000 people and received an appropriation from Congress of $6.874 billion. The per capita cost of incarcerating an individual in the federal system is $29,000 annually.

• At a time of significant government belt tightening the high cost of prison limits allocations for other important justice programs, like services for victims, crime prevention, and re-entry programs. The Bureau of Prisons consumes over 25% of the Department of Justice’s budget and this proportion will continue to grow if significant reforms designed to curtail growth and reduce the prison population are not enacted. 

• Passage of the Smarter Sentencing Act would advance several sentencing reform priorities of the faith community. The legislation’s provisions would limit the long mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenses, create an immediate reduction in the federal prison population due to the retroactive application of sentencing reforms passed under the Fair Sentencing Act in 2010 for crack cocaine offenses, and expand judicial discretion in cases involving the lowest level drug offenses.

• Passage of the Justice Safety Valve Act comes closest to realizing the sentencing goals of the faith community. The legislation would restore judicial discretion in all federal criminal cases by allowing the broadest departure from mandatory minimum sentences.

We support legislation like the Smarter Sentencing Act of 2015 (S. 502/H.R. 920), sponsored by Senators Mike Lee (R-UT) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) and Representatives Raúl Labrador (R-ID) and Robert (Bobby) Scott (D-VA), and the Justice Safety Valve Act of 2015 (S. 353/H.R. 706), sponsored by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY) and Patrick Leahy (R-VT) and Representatives Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Bobby Scott (D-VA), as intermediate legislative approaches to advancing these recommendations.

Our Faith Conviction

As people of faith and conscience, we are deeply concerned for the many millions of men, women and children arrested, sentenced, incarcerated and returned home from incarceration throughout this country.  The federal criminal justice system should lead the nation in ensuring proportional and equitable accountability for our brothers and sisters entangled within the criminal justice system. Unfortunately, the federal justice system is far from a national model. Since 1980, the size of the federal prison population has increased nearly 800%. Approximately 210,000 people are confined in federal prisons; 12% are in facilities managed by for-profit corporations. Many federal prisons are dangerously overcrowded and rehabilitative programming and treatment opportunities are lacking.

Mandatory minimum penalties -- sentences prescribed by Congress -- have substantially contributed to the increase in the federal prison population over the last 30 years and must be addressed to stop the crisis. We concur with the bipartisan U.S. Sentencing Commission’s 2011 report on mandatory minimum penalties that states, “certain mandatory minimum provisions apply too broadly, are set too high, or both, to warrant the prescribed minimum penalty… This has led to inconsistencies in application of certain mandatory minimum penalties….”

Eliminate the Immigrant Detention Bed Quota

We urge Congress to eliminate the detention bed quota for Fiscal Year 2016.

In the House, Congressmen Deutch (D-FL) & Foster (D-IL) will introduce an amendment to strike the quota language in the appropriations bill.  We ask you to:

·       Vote in favor of this amendment.

·       Contact other offices to gain support for the elimination of the quota.

·      Express your opposition to the bed quote in public statements.

The United States has the largest immigration detention infrastructure in the world. The expansion of this system in recent years is partly due to the immigration detention bed quota, a policy passed by Congress under which 34,000 immigrants are held in ICE detention at any given time. This policy is unprecedented; no other law enforcement agency operates on a quota system. 

What is the bed quota?

·       Enacted by Congress: Congressional appropriations language in ICE’s budget states “[t]hat funding made available under this heading shall maintain a level of not less than 34,000 detention beds.”

·       Implemented as a quota: ICE interprets this language as a quota requiring the agency to lock-up an average of 34,000 people in immigration detention at any given time.

What is the bed quota’s impact?

·       Immigrants are held in facilities in which innumerable human rights abuses and dozens of deaths have occurred. Immigrants are often held with no access to outdoor space, served rotten food, and subjected to wholly inadequate medical and mental health care.  Most immigrants are held in facilities hundreds of miles from their families and without access to counsel.

·       The quota feeds into a larger system characterized by mass deportation and lack of due process.  It incentivizes targeting immigrants for deportation in order to fill jail cells.

·       It puts a price tag on immigrant lives. The policy leads Congress and ICE to treat immigrants as numbers to fill a quota, not as real people with children and loved ones who depend on them.

·       It costs ICE over $2 billion every year. Money appropriated for the bed quota helps line the pockets of for-profit prison corporations that run over half of all immigration jail beds. The two top private prison companies, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and the GEO Group, have a combined annual revenue of over $3 billion.

Our Faith Conviction

As people of faith we support alternatives to immigrant detention, which runs contrary to our values of basic dignity, due process, and human rights. Immigrants are often held with no access to outdoor space, served rotten food, and subjected to wholly inadequate medical and mental health care.  Detained families are seeking protection from sexual assault, trafficking, and violence. The bed quota is a particularly egregious element of the immigrant detention system.

Detention operates on a quota system that keeps 34,000 immigrants imprisoned each day.

·       Congress has directed ICE to maintain a daily quota of 34,000 detention beds and has made ICE’s funding contingent on doing so.

·       The requirement to fill the quota forces ICE to find immigrants to detain and to continue operating facilities with subpar conditions and track records of abuse.

·       No other law enforcement agency is forced to operate on a quota system. 

Detention is expensive – there is a human cost to our communities and a monetary cost to taxpayers.

·       The administration’s rampant detention and deportation policies mean that the families and communities of nearly half a million people are torn apart each year.

·       The most recent budget request for ICE’s Custody Operations is just over $2 billion. During a time of fiscal crisis, it is unacceptable to be spending billions of taxpayer dollars to needlessly detain immigrants. This is a complete waste of resources when other proven and effective methods—including parole, release under supervision, and bond—cost taxpayers far less than detention.

Private prison corporations lobby for policies like the bed quota which keep immigrants in detention.

·       Nearly 60% of detention beds are in facilities run by private prison corporations, which rake in profits from the incarceration of immigrants.