Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-34) introduced the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act of 2008 today (10/03/08), which would establish legally enforceable immigration detention standards in place of the current system of non-binding and inconsistently applied guidelines. Under the legislation, all immigration detainees would receive basic minimum protections including access to medical care, phones, and legal representation.

The Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act (H.R. 7255) also provides special protections for unaccompanied children and other particularly vulnerable detainees while expanding the use of cost-saving alternatives to detention.

“The Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act establishes long-overdue legally binding detention standards for all immigration detention facilities,” Congresswoman Lucille Roybal-Allard said.  “The legislation is needed to ensure that everyone who is held in a detention facility, especially children, be treated fairly and humanely.”

In 2000, the federal government established immigration detention standards, but the standards are not legally enforceable and are not consistently implemented.  As a result, thousands of immigration detainees have been subjected to inhumane conditions that violate basic minimum standards of due process and decency. The ACLU and many other organizations have received countless complaints from immigration detainees regarding deplorable medical care, no working phones, and abuse while in detention.

Joanne Lin, ACLU legislative counsel, commended the Congresswoman Roybal-Allard for introducing her bill, saying, “The absence of legally enforceable detention condition standards has meant that no one really knows what is happening inside immigration detention facilities – the family members of detainees don’t know, Congress doesn’t know, the American public doesn’t know.  Congresswoman Roybal-Allard’s legislation is necessary to introduce transparency and oversight into an unregulated and unaccountable immigration detention system.”

Charles H. Kuck, President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association added, “Repeated incidents of detainee abuse and needless deaths in detention have sparked tremendous concern from Members of Congress, the media and community advocates. The introduction of the Roybal-Allard legislation intensifies the drumbeat from Members of Congress calling for immediate reform and builds upon a series of recent legislative initiatives calling for an end to the unlawful detention and detainee abuse.”

In addition to codifying existing detention standards, the legislation would overhaul the detention conditions for children held in U.S. Border Patrol stations, and require that the Department of Homeland Security work to quickly transfer children from the Border Patrol’s custody to youth-centered agencies better equipped to deal with detained children.

“Many unaccompanied undocumented children languish in jail cells while in the custody of Customs and Border Patrol without access to adequate nutrition, health care, or notice of their right to a phone call to family or legal counsel,” said Congresswoman Roybal-Allard. “As a Member of Congress and as a mother, I am determined to change this aspect of our immigration detention system, and I am proud that this bill would vastly improve how these children are treated.”

Finally, the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act would increase the use of alternatives to detention for individuals who do not pose a flight risk or a threat to public safety. These individuals may include pregnant women, those fleeing persecution in their home countries, families with children and other particularly vulnerable detainees. Members of these populations would be placed in a proven program of supervised release instead of in a detention facility where the federal government must expend enormous resources to feed, house and watch over them.

In a statement, the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service applauded Congresswoman Roybal-Allard for introducing the Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act, citing the need for greater use of alternatives to detention programs. “The government’s over-reliance on detention is particularly shocking in that many of those detained, and some of those who have died, are members of vulnerable groups that deserve protection, not incarceration,” the group’s statement read.

The Immigration Oversight and Fairness Act would do the following:

• Facilitate speedy transfers of children to better equipped shelter facilities and increase training for immigration officers who work with unaccompanied youth;
• Establish legally enforceable detention condition standards such as access to phones and medical care;
• Ensure that detainees receive appropriate medical care, and create safeguards against forcible drugging; and
• For those detainees who are not a flight risk, promote community-based “alternatives to detention” programs that are cost-effective and successful.
   

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