Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center's experienced legal staff can speak about the legal ramifications of immigration laws, provide analysis of how immigration policies play out in immigrant communities, and help put reporters in touch with immigrants, refugees, and asylum seekers who can provide a human face to stories about the U.S. immigration system.
NIJC Press contact:
Tara Tidwell Cullen
Detention ICE releases new "performance-based" detention standards | ICE releases new "performance-based" detention standards |
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| Friday, 12 September 2008 | |
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The federal immigration enforcement agency has released a new set of detention standards to govern the treatment of detained immigrants.
The new "performance-based" standards, posted on the the Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) website, replace the original detention standards that were negotiated in 2000 between the immigration agency and legal aid experts including the American Bar Association and other non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
In fall 2007, a group of more than three dozen legal aid, advocacy, and community and faith-based immigrant rights organizations, co-chaired by Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC) and the Chicago Bar Foundation, negotiated with ICE for the opportunity to review and comment on the draft performance-based standards. This group of non-governmental organizations, called the DHS-NGO Enforcement Working Group, submitted comments to ICE in March 2008, which the agency considered before preparing the final set of standards.
The Working Group had not seen the final standards prior to their release.
In commenting on the draft standards, NIJC and other members of the Working Group sought to improve the legal and due process protections available to immigrants held in ICE custody, and to guarantee that all detainees are treated with dignity and provided adequate health care. Legal aid providers and community and faith-based organizations share an interest with the agency in seeing strong standards governing all detention facilities uniformly. To this end, NIJC believes strongly that detention standards must be codified in statute or regulation. NIJC will continue to advocate with ICE to make the detention standards enforceable under law.
NIJC appreciates the constructive exchange it has had with ICE on the performance-based standards over nearly a year's time. ICE has expressed a commitment to continuing discussion with the Working Group over the standards and considering further modifications. We look forward to reviewing the standards in detail and sharing our views on the final product with ICE.
View the ICE Performance-Based Detention Standards at http://www.ice.gov/pi/icedetaineeinfo.htm.
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