Our Broken System of Immigration Detention

October 6, 2020

We have long known that U.S. immigration detention facilities are rife with violence and abuse. But now, officials at the U.S. Border Patrol have sunk to a new low: they are seeking to destroy records of staff misconduct, including sexual abuse, in their facilities. This is an outrage.

Right now, the Border Patrol is trying to push through a rule that would lead to the purging of vital information — including records of detainees being sexually abused, gathered under the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). JDI fought tooth and nail to ensure that PREA covered all types of immigration detention facilities, requiring them to conduct and document thorough investigations into abuse allegations. Now the future of those records is in doubt.

Sexual abuse flourishes where there is a lack of transparency and accountability. The Border Patrol has long resisted the independent oversight necessary to ensure the safety of people in its custody. Its facilities are a house of horrors; kids are being held in cages, without access to showers, toothpaste, or clean clothes. As JDI Executive Director Lovisa Stannow highlighted in an op-ed last year, these conditions can be traced to officials’ refusal to take responsibility for abusive treatment and a toxic staff culture.

The Border Patrol’s push to bury information about sexual abuse is part of a disturbing pattern of sweeping its problems under the rug, rather than trying to solve them by bringing them to light.

Depressingly, Border Patrol facilities are just one part of our profoundly troubled immigration detention system. As recent revelations about mass hysterectomies and sexual abuse have made clear, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities are also dangerous and mismanaged, and operate without sufficient scrutiny.

Time and time again, our government has failed to protect people detained in immigration facilities — many of whom have never been charged with a criminal offense. Since the government clearly cannot protect their human rights, it must release them.