The Case for Abolishing ICE

[Callie Del Noire]

I take it there are political reasons for that? I'm sitting here across a wide ocean bemused why it DOESN'T get shut down right now and a whole slew of people charged with dozens of crimes. How can a nation sit there and let this monster sustain itself?

It’s hard to disestablish an agency, even one that I agree should be. Too many fingers, too many pies. This was one of the reasons I wasn’t too thrilled when Homeland security came out. I thought that the FBI was aprons filling most of the role already and expanding their purview would have been more prudent.

Or something other than rapidly creating a poorly defined agency to fill an agenda better set by expanding limits on a current one

[Skynet]

ICE used access to unauthorized private information of millions of people regarding bills of public utilities and employment in order to pursue undocumented immigrants.

Two facilities in Southern Texas announced that they're stop detaining families and those seeking asylum. Officials didn't say exactly what processes this entails, so take it with a grain of salt.

Chicago signed a sanctuary city ordinance to close loopholes that fostered cooperation between police and ICE. The ordinance's goal is to better protect undocumented immigrants from ICE.

A new detention center for children opened under the Biden administration.

The ACLU is disappointed in Biden's policies regarding immigration and the organization.

[Skynet]

One of the Biden Administration's policy is creating family separations of a different sort.

Plans to rehouse migrant inmates in hotels are in the works.

What happens when ICE asks Google for your user information.

GEO Group found guilty of violating federal law via the use of chemical disinfectant which was used to torture inmates.

[Skynet]

During April, number of deportations fell to its lowest numbers on record.

Despite this, ICE is still trying to subvert President Biden's orders regarding deportation and detainment limits.

There's still no clear plans for how to vaccinate ICE prisoners.

[Skynet]

The Biden Administration has barred ICE from detaining pregnant or nursing women.

ICE's facilities are still far below par in halting the spread of COVID among its prisoners.

Horrific conditions at an ICE detention center in Louisiana have been reported in late June of this year.. Lack of toilets, extremely cold temperatures, cockroaches in served food, and leaving unconscious prisoners on the ground are but a few reported cases.

[Skynet]

ICE failed to send an inmate suffering from a medical emergency to a hospital. He died.

A man who was granted deportation protection was still imprisoned by ICE for 77 days.

North Carolina sheriff and lawmakers are against a bill that would force local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE in looking over the immigration history of inmates in local jails.

In an attempt to reform the agency, President Biden is appointing a new leader for ICE.

ICE is making use of facial recognition searches on drivers' licenses. They denied it.

[Skynet]

In spite of grassroots support and a bill to abolish ICE at the state level in New Jersey by not renewing contracts with for-profit prisons, it doesn't go far enough in ending existing ones. Additionally while deploring the Trump administration's role in strengthening ICE, the state has profited immensely from it.

An Argentinian man who appeard in a documentary critical of ICE has been targeted by the organization for deportation.

A federal judge blocked the Biden administration's attempts at shifting ICE piorities to focus on people with serious criminal records.

[Skynet]

The Department of Homeland Security is looking into hiring private contractors to house ICE detainees in Guantanamo Bay. While they claim that there are no plans to place any immigrants from the southern border there, the government is looking to hire private security fluent in Haitian Creole.

In spite of referring to the policy as inhumane, in private President Biden and officials in his administration were privately happy about the Supreme Court reviving a Trump-era "Remain in Mexico" policy.

... among some Biden officials, the Supreme Court’s order was quietly greeted with something other than dismay, current and former officials said: It brought some measure of relief.

...

Concern had already been building inside the Biden administration that the speed of its immigration changes may have encouraged migrants to stream toward the United States, current and former officials said.

In fact, some Biden officials were already talking about reviving Mr. Trump’s policy in a limited way to deter migration, said the officials, who have worked on immigration policy but were not authorized to speak publicly about the administration’s internal debates on the issue. Then the Supreme Court order came, providing the Biden administration with the political cover to adopt the policy in some form without provoking as much ire from Democrats who reviled Mr. Trump’s border policies.

...

The policy at the center of the case — commonly known as Remain in Mexico — quickly became one of the most contentious elements of Mr. Trump’s immigration agenda because it upended central provisions of the nation’s asylum system. Instead of allowing migrants to enter the United States while the courts assessed their claims, it made thousands of asylum seekers wait in squalid encampments in Mexico rife with reports of kidnappings, extortion and other serious abuses.

...

... the ambivalence within corners of the Biden administration reflects a broader worry: that the border crisis could have electoral repercussions for the Democrats

The U.S. government has lost contact with thousands of migrant children released from its custody, according to data obtained by Axios through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

7 women file complaint alleging abuse, medical neglect at Florida ICE detention center.

“If they aren’t going to treat us (for our medical issues), we want to be free,” said Lopez. “We have our families; we aren’t alone. I have my older children who can help me access care.”

Some of the issues include unannounced entries by male guards into their living area, voyeurism by the guards who watch the women shower, medical neglect and a psychiatrist using his authority “to sexually harass immigrant women at the facility.”

Another issue described in the complaint: Regular exposure to a toxic, industrial-grade disinfectant spray.

“Last night, they were spraying a chemical, and it’s not fair,” said one woman, who chose to remain anonymous, in the complaint. “Yesterday, we were coughing a lot because we couldn’t take the vapor and smell of the chemical.”

Lunise Clerveaux, who was detained for several months at Glades and is named in the complaint, said the chemical “turns the air gray” and lingers. Clerveaux said when it was sprayed, she would hide under her bed sheet until the cloud disappeared, according to the complaint.

In the complaint, the woman detailed poor living conditions including rotten food, yellow drinking water that forces them to drink from the sinks, pest infestations, and lack of access to toilet paper. They say COVID-19 protocols are ignored, causing the virus to spread.

ICE data show that there have been 195 COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began and one death.

They also say that the women are exposed to racial slurs and degrading comments from guards daily.

“These powerful women have been subjected to unspeakable harassment and abuse at the hands of ICE and Glades staff,” said Andrea Ruiz-Sorrentini, outreach paralegal with the Southern Poverty Law Center, in a news release. “Swift action must be taken to end immigration detention and those detained by ICE must be safely released.”

[Skynet]

The Department of Homeland Security issued an order for ICE to stop raiding the workplaces of immigrants.

The announcement is part of a shift in strategy under the Biden administration that puts a new emphasis on going after businesses and employers that violate labor laws. In addition to halting mass raids, it supports the idea of exercising prosecutorial discretion to spare workers from charges if they witness or are the victims of abuse or exploitation in the workplace.

 "We will not tolerate unscrupulous employers who exploit unauthorized workers, conduct illegal activities, or impose unsafe working conditions," Mayorkas said in a news release about the shift.

"By adopting policies that focus on the most unscrupulous employers," he said, "we will protect workers as well as legitimate American businesses."

...

In New York it is now illegal to threaten to report someone to ICE.

ALBANY — It is now illegal in New York to threaten to report someone’s immigration status.

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed into law last week a bill that classifies such threats as extortion or coercion. Previously, such threats were treated as a crime solely in cases of labor and sex trafficking.

“This legislation will protect New Yorkers from bad actors who use extortion or coercion due to their immigration status, and make our state safer against vile threats and intimidation,” Hochul said in a press release.

California, Colorado, Maryland and Virginia have enacted similar pieces of legislation.

Research has found that undocumented immigrants face threats to report their immigration status to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from employers, landlords, abusive partners and more. Studies found a rise in the number of those threats during the administration of President Donald Trump, who touted a “zero-tolerance” policy on immigration.

Local immigration advocacy groups have seen such threats recently, with landlords threatening to call ICE if their tenants didn't vacate their apartment that day.

[Skynet]

ICE Review of Immigrant's Suicide finds falsified documents, neglect, and improper confinement.

MEDICAL AND SECURITY staff at a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center violated numerous agency rules when dealing with a detainee with mental illness, according to an internal agency investigation. Efraín Romero de la Rosa, who had been diagnosed with schizophrenia, took his own life after 21 days in solitary confinement in Georgia’s Stewart Detention Center in July 2018.

Following Romero’s death, ICE’s External Reviews and Analysis Unit, a nominally impartial body within the agency, opened an investigation that found that staff had falsified documents; improperly dealt with Romero’s medication; neglected to follow proper procedures for his care; and improperly placed him in disciplinary solitary confinement — despite multiple warnings of Romero’s declining mental health.

The Stewart Detention Center, owned and operated by private prison company CoreCivic, is one of the largest immigration jails in the country — and the deadliest. Since 2017, eight people detained at Stewart have died: four from complications with Covid-19 and two by suicide, including Romero. Two others died of pneumonia and a heart attack.

Romero had been diagnosed with schizophrenia prior to being detained by ICE. During his time at Stewart, he spent time in an external mental health facility for schizophrenic delusions. In 2019, The Intercept and WNYC’s The Takeaway released an investigation into Romero’s death demonstrating a stunning level of neglect toward Romero in the months leading up to his death. The newly revealed review document confirms our previous reporting and adds more detail to Romero’s time in ICE custody.