Thread: Government posts new standards for treatment of IA families

Government posts new standards for treatment of immigrant families held in detention centers
Advocates welcome changes, but say detention should be last resort

By Juan Castillo
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Saturday, January 12, 2008

The first-ever federal standards for immigrant women and children held in confinement at facilities in Taylor and Pennsylvania are an improvement, but fall short of ensuring appropriate conditions for families who have committed no crimes, advocates for immigrants and refugees said Friday.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Friday posted the 37 new standards on the agency's Web site. They address education, discipline, use of force, medical care, strip searches, sexual assault and prevention, detainee counts and other issues.

The standards were approved Dec. 21 and are now in effect, said agency spokesman Carl Rusnok.

They were stipulated in a settlement agreement reached last August in federal lawsuits filed in Austin by the American Civil Liberties Union and the University of Texas Law School immigration clinic, Rusnok said.

Attorneys for several children confined at the T. Don Hutto residential facility in Taylor contended in the lawsuits that conditions there were inhumane and violated minimum standards for minors in immigration custody, set under a 1997 settlement approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. Attorneys could not be reached for comment late Friday.

The standards also apply at another smaller facility for immigrant families in Berka, Pa.

"We commend the Department of Homeland Security for drafting standards that will improve these facilities," said Michelle Brané with the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children in New York. "However, we continue to be concerned with many provisions of the standards, particularly that they allow children to be disciplined based on adult prison protocol, including the use of restraints, steel batons and strip searches."

The 512-bed Hutto facility, operated by Corrections Corp. of America and overseen by the federal agency, opened in May 2006 as one of two centers in the nation that confined families on noncriminal charges while they awaited decisions in asylum cases or final arrangements for deportation.

The facility generated controversy later that year, with critics saying that it was inappropriate for children. Opponents said there were better alternatives to confining families, such as holding them in nonpenal settings, as Congress also advocated.

Federal immigration officials said that the Hutto facility was safe, and said they would continue to use it and other facilities to enforce immigration law in what they described as a humane manner.

Rusnok said the standards will "ensure that the residents of ICE's residential facilities receive quality and consistent treatment."

Brané, the director of the women's commission's detention and asylum program, said the new standards take into account many recommendations made by the commission and other immigrant advocate groups. She said they included limiting strip searches on minors, and provisions that children not be awakened or disturbed during night census counts unless urgent circumstances exist.

The standards stipulate that parents cannot be searched in the presence of a child. A parent must be present if a child is searched.

jcastillo@statesman.com; 445-3635
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/n ... hutto.html

These families need to be quickly on their way so that these type of incidents do not occur and so that the American taxpayers are not forced to continue to support illegal aliens with services and benefits.

Matthew 5:44

Good now they can stop complaining ! If they would volunteer to be deported they would not be in a detention center .

Now I think Americans should DEMAND the
IA's get a speedy court hearing and decision so they can be deported faster.

The first-ever federal standards for immigrant women and children held in confinement at facilities in Taylor and Pennsylvania are an improvement, but fall short of ensuring appropriate conditions for families who have committed no crimes, advocates for immigrants and refugees said Friday.

Hello--illegal immigration is a CRIME.

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Mexico's treatment is neither humane nor lawful and they complain about our deportation policies and procedures and say their civil rights are violated.
Some segments from US State Department advice for US citizens traveling in Mexico:

Arrests & Notifications: The Mexican government is required by international law to notify the U.S. Embassy or the nearest U.S. consulate promptly when a U.S. citizen is arrested, if the arrestee so requests. In practice, however, this notification can be delayed by months or may never occur at all, limiting the assistance the U.S. Government can provide. U.S. citizens should promptly identify themselves as such to the arresting officers, and should request that the Embassy or nearest consulate be notified immediately.

Prison Facilities: Prison conditions in Mexico can be extremely poor. In many facilities food is insufficient in both quantity and quality, and prisoners must pay for adequate nutrition from their own funds. [b] Most Mexican prisons provide poor medical care, and even prisoners with urgent medical conditions receive only a minimum of attention. U.S. citizens who are incarcerated in Mexico are sometimes forced to pay hundreds and even thousands of dollars in “protection moneyâ€