When immigrant women and children crossing over into the country illegally first began to be detained by the federal it was supposed to be a long-term, compassionate solution to avert a humanitarian crisis at the border. But in the last year a series of miscalculations, along with opposition from advocates and federal court rulings, have made the policy almost questionable.
The crisis has left the Obama government in a queer paradox, as it is on the lookout for contractors to build and run new detention facilities that shall be specially designed for families to stay in. While it is doing so the realization also dawns on them that the detention facilities may soon be barred and therefore, there will be only empty centers.
The latest nail in the coffin came from a district court judge who lambasted the administration for rushing to build new facilities that did not fully adhere to requirements for detaining children. The judge stated in his order that as the documented statements from hundreds of detained families and children did not match with the rosy details painted by the administration the families should be released as soon as possible.
“It is astonishing that the defendants have enacted a policy requiring such expensive infrastructure without more evidence to show that it would be compliant with an agreement that has been in effect for nearly 20 years,” the judge stated in his order.
Across the United States thousands of immigrants are waiting to get their day in court. But there is an acute shortage of court staff and that is why, there could be around half a million cases still pending for resolution, according to the latest data from a university source.
Currently, there are only around 250 immigration judges in the United States, and to add to the crisis around a 100 judges are up for retirement this year.
Since the year 2007 the immigration court backlog rose by almost 160 per cent while the number of immigration judges rose by just 15 per cent. The U S government had said in the month of May that around 68 new judges were to be hired. But this has not happened, leading to a major strain on the entire immigration system.
Burgeoning cases, increased terror stories, meager resources – all this is leading to a faster burnout that is being witnessed amongst judges; this is higher than the instances of prison staff and doctors burning out, according to a study.
“Hearing asylum cases, especially the ones in which the witnesses testify credibly, has affected my view of the world,” a respondent of a survey said, as he talked about tales of homicide, rape, and organized crime heard in court. “I have lost most of my faith in humankind, and I fear deeply for the future.”
A lack of support staff, office space, and technology are also compounding the problems.
Families of those victims who were allegedly killed by undocumented immigrants recently made a plea to the Congress to take action against such crimes and to get the illegal criminals off the streets of the country. They argued that if the present government had done more to detain and deport undocumented immigrants their family members would have been alive today.
One of the parents of a girl who was recently killed by an undocumented immigrant stated that any kind of action to put an end to the crime on the streets was welcome. He said that they “realize the complexities of immigration laws, however, we feel strongly that some legislation should be discussed, enacted and/or changed to take these undocumented immigrant felons off our streets for good.”
Following the girl’s death, lawmakers had introduced a series of bills. One of them was a law that would require all jurisdictions to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement or risk losing access to federal law enforcement grants. This has been the focus of most of the other legislation.
These bills would penalize the more than 300 jurisdictions where officials argue that limiting cooperation with ICE helps them protect the community and doesn’t shield criminals. Law enforcement leaders were urging federal lawmakers to let localities craft their own policies, including declining to cooperate with federal programs that they say make people afraid to work with police.
A group of immigrant women who had been held at various government-controlled family detention centers complained to the Department of Homeland Security recently stating that they and their children had received below par medical care at the facilities.
“These 10 complaints are representative of the regular failures of DHS to provide adequate medical care for mothers and children in family detention facilities, and they add to the already ample evidence demonstrating why family detention must end,” the immigration attorneys’ groups representing the women said in a statement.
The groups requested the D H S to “conduct a prompt and thorough investigation into these examples immediately and to take swift action to fully investigate the systemic problems.”
Immigrant family detention was being steadily expanded by the government administration ever since last summer’s increase of illegal immigration on the southern border, mainly from Central America. The number of family detention facilities had expanded from one 95-bed family detention center in Pennsylvania to three, the larger two in Texas, and by the year’s end there were a total of 3,700 beds.
The women stated in their complaints to DHS that they and their children were denied medical care and mistreated, and many had to endure medical errors.
