January 17, 2007

DHS OIG: immigrants were mistreated at detention facilities

The DHS's (Department of Homeland Security) inspector general has released a report claiming that immigrants - apparently both legal and illegal - were mistreated at various ICE facilities around the country:

...U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials and contractors denied timely medical treatment to some of the immigrants, failed to disclose and justify disciplinary actions against them, and improperly limited access to relatives, lawyers and immigration authorities, according to the Department of Homeland Security inspector general.

Detention officers failed to establish a system to report abuse and violated health and safety rules by neglecting to monitor prisoners on hunger strikes or suicide watches and by serving undercooked food, the report said...

However:

Civil liberties and immigrant advocacy groups are stepping up scrutiny of conditions. Jorge Bustamante, the U.N. special rapporteur on human rights of immigrants, has asked to visit U.S. detention centers next month.

Critics of the agency called the report disappointing, contending that it watered down recommendations and ignored the most serious allegations of abuse collected since June 2004, which they said included physical beatings, medical neglect, food shortages and mixing of illegal immigrants in administrative custody with criminals.

I think we know what the U.N. is going to say. Our homegrown far-lefties mentioned as complaining are: "Judy Rabinovitz, a lawyer with the ACLU immigrants rights project"; "Eric Lerner, a spokesman for the New Jersey Civil Rights Defense Committee"; and "Bryan Lonegan, a lawyer with the Legal Aid Society in New York City".

If all the ACLU and the others did was complain about and try to end such possible abuses, that would be one thing and they might get more widespread support. Unfortunately, as their actions (and the ACLU's indirect link to the Mexican government) consistently show, their agenda is much more broad and seems to be an attempt to weaken our enforcement of immigration laws across the board.

Posted to Immigration2007a at January 17, 2007 12:18 PM

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