Key Links: ICE Detention Standards

To view “detention standards” for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), see this web page at the Department of Justice (DOJ):

http://www.usdoj.gov/ofdt/standards.htm

Here you will find a summary of nine general areas of concern, along with a link that you can follow to a 194-page pdf file (pbds-1-25-06-ta-wpdbtb_verison.pdf).

The DOJ page reports that the detention standards were adopted in Jan. 2001, but it does not acknowledge that the American Bar Association (ABA) helped to negotiate the standards, apparently in the context of a lawsuit.

“As a result of 1996 immigration law amendments that mandated the detention of certain immigrants and asylum seekers,” reports the ABA Commission on Immigration, “ICE now detains more than 200,000 people annually at over 200 sites, the majority of which are county and local jails. Immigration detainees are the fastest growing group of people incarcerated in the United States. In 2006 ICE will receive $3.7 billion for immigration law enforcement, including detention and removal.”

The ABA Commission on Immigration has several pages and publications. See the commission’s home page at:

http://www.abanet.org/publicserv/immigration/home.html

As reported elsewhere, the ABA Commission on Immigration has announced intentions to visit the T. Don Hutto prison for immigrants.

Meanwhile, DOJ says its Office of the Federal Detention Trustee “will conduct Quality Assurance Reviews in 12 non-federal facilities and 9 private facilities” during fiscal year 2007. Hutto is a private facility managed by the Corrections Corporation of America and named after the company’s co-founder.

A study released during the 2006 holidays by the Homeland Security Office of Inspector General found a range of detention issues worth reporting (see TCRR story: USA Inspectors Cite Problems with ICE Prisons, Jan. 16, 2007). Home page for detention standards review book:

http://www.usdoj.gov/ofdt/reviewbook.htm