Category: JDI in the News

Trump Could Roll Back Decades Of Progress That Made Immigrant Detention More Humane

  • Elise Foley
  • April 25, 2017
  • Huffington Post

WASHINGTON ― Human rights advocates spent years fighting for even small improvements to the system that detains men, women and children waiting to be either deported or released back into the U.S. Now they fear the progress they have made could disappear under President Donald Trump, who has promised harsher treatment of undocumented immigrants. “This

In Detention Centers, 97 Percent of Rape Accusations Met by Silence, Report Says

  • Annamarya Scaccia
  • April 24, 2017
  • Broadly

A complaint issued by CIVIC charges that the DHS Office of Inspector General failed to investigate more than 97 percent of reports of sexual abuse from people in immigration detention over a two-year period. Douglas Menjivar says the first time he was raped in 2013, he didn’t report the assault. His alleged attacker, a fellow

Taking Stock of Prison Rape in the Trump Era

  • Julie Morse
  • February 27, 2017
  • VICE

In 2003, Congress—led by current attorney general Jeff Sessions—passed a law to eliminate sexual assault in America’s jails and prisons. Is it working? One stormy July morning in 2013, 17-year-old R.W.* awoke to use the bathroom and found himself stuck in the throes of an American nightmare. Then an inmate at the Sumter Correctional Institution in

U.S. border officials released immigrants by mistake, sexually abused foreigners, tried to order prostitutes on government Blackberrys and defecated in hotel hallways on overseas trips

  • Wills Robinson
  • February 9, 2017
  • Daily Mail

  -Investigation found 497 officers were accused of misconduct between 2013 and 2015 including abuse of detainees, falling asleep and being drunk on the job -An agent was suspended for trying to use his government-issued Blackberry to solicit a prostitute in Bangkok, Thailand -Two guards were reprimanded after they were discovered  in a sexual relationship

Sex assaults by jailer nets $11.5M verdict

  • Mike Mosedale
  • February 13, 2017
  • Minnesota Lawyer

Even though he just garnered a career-best $11.5 million jury award, veteran personal injury lawyer Tom Weidner says he wasn’t in the mood to pop the champagne corks. “Professionally, it was very satisfying and it was a great team effort,” said Weidner, a partner at Eckberg Lammers in Stillwater. “But it’s such a sad story,