Human Rights First Welcomes Detention Reforms Announced by DHS

Further reforms needed to limit risk of prolonged detention

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Washington, DC – Today, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton announced a series of reforms in response to a comprehensive review of the immigration detention system that was ordered earlier this year by Secretary Napolitano. Human Rights First welcomes the announcement, including the plans to expand alternatives to detention and reduce reliance on prison-like facilities.

“Asylum seekers are detained for months and sometimes years in the flawed immigration detention system,” said Eleanor Acer, Human Right’s First’s Refugee Protection Program Director. “Meaningful reform of the detention system must also include crucial safeguards like immigration court review of decisions to detain asylum seekers.  Without this long overdue protection, those who seek this country’s protection from persecution will continue to be detained for months and sometimes years in this country.”

In an April 2009 report, U.S. Detention of Asylum Seekers: Seeking Protection, Finding Prison, Human Rights First found that the United States was detaining asylum seekers in “penal” facilities for months and sometimes years, often without basic safeguards like hearings to assess the need for continued detention. In its report, Human Rights First recommended that DHS stop detaining asylum seekers in “penal” facilities, create nationwide alternatives to detention, and reform the parole process for asylum seekers. Human Rights First also recommended that DHS work with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to provide all detained asylum seekers with access to custody hearings so that the need for their continued detention can be assessed by an immigration court.

Human Rights First encourages Congress to take action to ensure that necessary reforms are implemented, including swift consideration of two bills introduced in August, the Secure and Safe Detention and Asylum Act and the Protect Citizens and Residents from Unlawful Detention Act. Human Rights First praised the leadership of Senators Joseph Lieberman (I-CT), Robert Menendez (D-NJ), Edward Kennedy (D-MA), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Daniel Akaka (D-HI), key sponsors of the two measures, and stated that these proposed bills would address some of the voids that still remain in ICE’s reform plans by adding critical safeguards to the detention system that will help ensure that asylum seekers and other vulnerable populations are not detained unnecessarily for lengthy periods of time.

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