Conditions in Immigration Facilities

baleeber

Adept
I was going to post this as a reply in a thread, but realized it would derail the thread and wasn't consistent with the topic, so I decided to put this here.

This is just my opinion on immigration facilities in America.

I 100% agree that we should be aware of what goes on in immigration facilities, and that we have to be active, as citizens, in making sure that conditions in our immigration facilities are humane. We can do a lot better than what we're getting by on now. Things have to improve. However ...

People easily forget that the conditions in the immigration facilities were reported heavily around 2014 or so.

There are a couple of reasons for the conditions, and both relate to overcrowded facilities.
1. Many people are illegally crossing the border. During the Bush administration, it was around 80,000 illegal crossing per month. During Obama and Trump, about 30,000-35,000 people per month.

However, in 2018, the numbers surged to over 100,000 a month in May and June, for a total of more than 680,000 people from January to July.

That's up from 521,000 for the entire year in 2018.

Facilities are overwhelmed.

2. In America, when you are detained for immigration violation (entering the country without going through the appropriate entry point and procedures, i.e. illegal entry, or through overstaying a visa), you are given free legal counsel (although it is minimal advice, it exists), and you go before a judge who will hear the case and decide whether to allow the individual to remain, or whether the individual should be deported.

The legal procedure is part of the reason some people remain in detention for an extended period: judgement and appeal. Most countries would simply pack you on the first transport back to your nation of origin.

Many times, those detained in a detention facility are not first-time offenders (who get other arrangements, usually). Most have been detained before. Any person who is found to have committed a crime during their previous stay (the second most common being theft), is treated as a criminal. Thus, parents and children are separated, the same as prison. The problem is, immigration violation is also recorded as a criminal complaint, i.e. they now have a criminal record. So those who have a previous conviction for immigration violation may also be separated.

Now, I don't agree with separating parents and children. I believe this was a misguided attempt to dissuade people from entering illegally, i.e. "Don't enter illegally or you may be separated from your children."

I didn't find sources, however, to know if separating children from parents AT the facility was common before. I think maybe not like it is now. Most articles from 2014 and earlier talk about parent-child separation when an undocumented parent is detained, but a citizen child is not, or when a parent is deported, but the citizen child isn't. Or cases of unaccompanied children entering the country, often having been separated from parents before entry. I haven't find any firm articles outside that.

I did find an article from 2012, relating to UNESCO recommendations that during immigration, for compassion, children and parents not be separated.

I know certainly if I were a parent, I would be furious and heartbroken to be separated from my young children.

Here are a few sources:
Border Arrests Drop by 28% in June in First Decline of the Year
Overcrowded, unsanitary conditions seen at immigrant detention centers
Leaked photos show immigrant children packed in crowded Texas border facilities
The Border Patrol Finally Showed Reporters How Detained Child Migrants Are Living
 

nivek

As Above So Below
I don't know the percentage but some of those children coming across the border with adults were not children of those adults, some of the children were not with their parents but with other people taking them across...

...
 

nivek

As Above So Below
The limit for refugee entry is at 30,000 people per year, and this week the government is proposing lowering that limit to 18,000 for next year of 2020 however they expect around 368,000 refugee and asylum claims...These limits reflect legal entry into the country...

Trump administration imposes 18K limit on refugees, the lowest ever

...
 

baleeber

Adept
Compare that with Japan, which approved 42 applications for refugees in 2018 ... the most ever!
 
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