Washington Democratic Reps. Pramila Jayapal and Adam Smith on Tuesday renewed their call to close all for-profit federal immigration detention centers.
Their letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas comes just days after Washington Democratic Sen. Patty Murray requested federal auditors investigate health care services at the Northwest ICE Processing Center, a privately-run detention facility in Tacoma.
Jayapal and Smith write that their letter was spurred by news that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is closing a facility in Texas but plans to expand immigration detention overall.
“We are deeply troubled that ICE plans to use the cost savings from this closure to expand the use of immigration detention, in particular facilities operated by private, for-profit prison companies,” the two representatives write.
The letter cites a recent report from Physicians for Human Rights which found 95% of the 52 deaths in ICE custody reported between 2017 to 2021 were preventable, and 13 of the 15 immigration detention centers with the highest number of deaths were run by companies — including GEO Group, which operates the Tacoma facility and another facility in California.
“Some of the most egregious abuses of immigrants occurred in detention facilities run by private companies,” the letter reads. “Unnecessary medical interventions, forced labor, abuse of solitary confinement, and intimidation have run rampant at privately operated detention centers.”
The Tacoma facility has a history of detainees reporting abuses similar to those outlined in Jayapal and Smith’s letter, and hunger strikes are common.
Northwest ICE Processing Center uses solitary confinement more than any other immigration detention facility in the country, University of Washington researchers say. ICE says they use “segregation,” distinct from solitary confinement because detainees in “segregation” are afforded certain privileges. Experts say there’s not much of a difference.
In March, 61-year-old Charles Leo Daniel died at the facility while in solitary confinement, spurring calls for a federal investigation. The Pierce County medical examiner said in a report released last month that Daniel died of natural causes related to high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
“Immigration detention is meant to be civil in nature, not punitive. Yet immigrants detained by ICE in facilities increasingly operated by private prison companies face punishing conditions and neglect that some do not survive,” the letter continues.
The letter also notes that President Joe Biden signed an executive order in 2021 to phase out use of for-profit federal prisons, but “no such directive was issued for the immigration system. In fact, the use of private prisons in the immigration system has grown.”
As of July 2023, about 91% of individuals in immigration detention were held in facilities owned or operated by private companies, up from 81% in 2020, according to an August 2023 report from the American Civil Liberties Union cited in the letter.
Jayapal and Smith are co-sponsors of the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, which would bring increased oversight and transparency to federal detention centers. First introduced in 2022, it was re-introduced again in 2023 but has stalled.
ICE and GEO did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
— By Grace Deng, Washington State Standard
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What we really need to do is get rid of Jayapal and Smith so we can get control of our out of control immigration system.
It’s simple:
Legal immigration – GOOD
Illegal out of control immigration – BAD
It is especially difficult for ICE or anyone to control things when over 10 million illegals enter the country and all states become boarder states.
Jayapal and Smith would prefer that the unvetted humanity swarming across our southern border for for the past four years continue unabated and that all of those “illegal migrants” get to enjoy the American dream of living off of government largess provide by hard working Americans. Don’t want migrant detention centers ? Then vote accordingly. A good start will be to dump Jayapal and Smith at the next election cycle.
Thanks to Representatives Jayapal and Smith for calling attention to the care of residents in detention centers run by for-profit facilities. I am pleased that they are taking seriously their job, which includes concern for conditions at facilities in their districts that are funded by the federal government.
As is well known, both members of Congress support efforts to fund more resources for additional border agents, immigration judges and staff so that people detained along the border can have their requests for asylum expedited. Then less money would be spent on detention.
As is also well known, immigrants must make their way in this country largely without aid from government funding but very often helped by religious and charitable organizations, plus their own hard work in places that citizens avoid.