Thread: N.J. County Jail, a Model for Immigrant Detention Centers

In Plan to Improve County Jail, a Model for Immigrant Detention Centers

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: January 27, 2011

For officials of Essex County, N.J., it promises to be a potential moneymaker in struggling Newark: a proposed upgrading and extension of the county jail so it would hold hundreds more immigrants than it does now.

For the Obama administration, the plan offers the possibility of something far more sweeping: one of the first publicly visible results of its strategy to overhaul the way the government detains immigrants accused of violating the law.

Federal officials say the county’s proposal, which they have tentatively approved, would provide a less penal setting for noncriminal detainees, with improved medical care, amenities and federal oversight — the template for a new kind of detention center they intend to create around the country by renovating existing centers, building new ones and closing others.
As the government has locked up a growing number of immigrants in recent years, it has patched together a loose network of county jails and private detention centers, some of which have come under fire for abuse, substandard living conditions and even detainee deaths.
The Newark project, officials say, would also help alleviate a shortage of beds at detention centers in the New York region that has forced the transfer of many detainees to other parts of the country, far from their families and their lawyers, and driven up expenses. The expanded detention center would hold as many as 2,750 immigrants — 1,750 more than it does now — increasing the number of detainee beds in and around the region by as much as 60 percent, federal officials said.
Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the division of the Department of Homeland Security that runs the detention system, say they have chosen Essex County’s proposal over three other submissions from the region. The deal is still subject to final approval by federal authorities; negotiations between the authorities and county officials are expected to take at least three more months.
The project is the only one under consideration in the immigrant detention network in the Northeast. Just one other program in the country is as far advanced: The immigration agency signed a contract last month with Karnes County, Tex., for a 600-bed minimum-security center to house male detainees. Federal officials have also signaled their intent to expand or build centers in or near Miami, Atlanta, Chicago and San Francisco.
Immigration officials are saying little about the Newark proposal, citing the sensitivity of negotiations. But in a statement this month, the agency called the Karnes County agreement “a significant milestoneâ€

I say we have a great need for more "Sheriff Joe" facilities down around our southwest border especially. Chain gangs putting the illegals to work building a real border fence - double layer. If our military troops can live in the conditions they do overseas, there is no reason to baby illegals so that they will find it better to stay here even if in a detention center!

I don't know why they need an immigrant jail in New Jersey,
they have no counties with the I.C.E. Secure Communities Program in place,
and New York only had 2 of 62 counties in the program.

That sounds like they don't want illegal aliens detained and deported to me.

Originally Posted by JohnDoe2

In Plan to Improve County Jail, a Model for Immigrant Detention Centers

By KIRK SEMPLE
Published: January 27, 2011

As part of the system’s improvements, the Obama administration has promised a greater use of alternatives to detention, like community supervision. Federal officials said the immigration agency was still evaluating how best to expand that program.

Hmm,
OPENING STATEMENT OF
SENATOR SUSAN M. COLLINS
RANKING REPUBLICAN
PERMANENT SUBCOMMITTEE ON INVESTIGATIONS
REVIEW OF INS POLICY ON RELEASING ILLEGAL ALIENS
PENDING DEPORTATION HEARING

November 13, 2001

"A significant number... were apprehended by the Border Patrol but released pending the scheduling of a hearing before an immigration judge. According to one recently retired INS official, as many as 90 percent, or 22,000 of this group, don’t show up for their hearings each year. INS agents are not routinely sent out to locate the illegal aliens who fail to appear."

And we should want to expand this program because...

http://hsgac.senate.gov/111301collins.htm

Just more bullcrap. Amenities for illegals? Better living conditions? Soon we gonna be putting them up at the local 5 star hotel all expenses paid with room service.

Whats with these immigration hearings? What is the use for the immigration hearings? When was the last time an illegal alien who was held was found not guilty of being an illegal alien? I'd bet never. If someone's an illegal lock them up while the bus in fueled and enough are gathered for a haul. Heck, I even support using cattle trucks. Some call that inhumane but those same pro rights groups don't complain when soldiers in training are hauled around in cattle trucks for training. Look at Fort Sil Oklahoma for example and many others.

We don't need to hear any excuse unless as they crossed the border they declared themselves immediately asking for amnesty because of severe threat and persecution back home. We'll hear those cases but the rest...

Deport! Deport! Deport!. Cost per illegal alien deportation should never reach more then $300. Can easily fit 30 on a bus and if they are rounding em up as they should be thats a budget of $9000 per load for the bus and possible 1 night stay in lockup.

Originally Posted by ReformUSA2012

Just more bullcrap. Amenities for illegals? Better living conditions?

All of those housed in the detention centers are not IAs. Many of them are just there for safekeeping while the government comes to a decision on their cases or gathers necessary infomation to process them

Originally Posted by artclam

Originally Posted by ReformUSA2012

Just more bullcrap. Amenities for illegals? Better living conditions?

All of those housed in the detention centers are not IAs. Many of them are just there for safekeeping while the government comes to a decision on their cases or gathers necessary infomation to process them

Processed for what? I'd assume its not criminal activity as that should be a prison or jail. Only others I'd think of is IA's, those who are trying to claim amnesty after entering (IA's imo until otherwise stated), and legal immigrants facing charges that could lead to deportation (can't follow US law, to bad).

What else would they use these for?

I just don't see how someone in detention really should get more then the basics. Emergency medical care, base boring (cheap) food, a roof to keep the elements out, and a fence to keep them in. Its good enough for the military so why not for detained individuals.

[quote="ReformUSA2012Processed for what?[/quote]

Here's an example. Mr. X has a valid visa to come to the USA to negotiate purchase of USA made widgets for his business in his home country. Between the time his visa is issued and the time he arrives in the USA Interpol issues an alert that a person named X will try to enter the USA to execute a terrorist attack. Mr. X will be held until it can be determined that he is not the person Interpol is warning about.

Here's another. Miss Y arrives alone in the USA with a valid tourist visa. The examining official is suspicious of her visa because her home country is known for fraud and because the official also knows that a visa for Miss Y's sister was issued at the same time. Miss Y explains that her sister did not come because she took ill. Miss Y will be held until it can be determined that she is indeed the person whom the visa was issued for.

The USA system(s) for keeping records on aliens is not in good shape. It sometimes takes quite a while to get correct information. If information is needed from a foreign government, especially third-world government, it can take a while to obtain.

Ahh, I see then. Yah don't really hear much about there being many people entering the US who get hold ups who are legal.