SEARCH:
washingtonpost.com
Web
| Search Archives

Care at the Immigrant Detention Centers

TOOLBOX

Resize Text

Save/Share +
Print This
E-mail This

COMMENT

Discussion Policy
CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.

Who's Blogging

» Links to this article
Saturday, May 17, 2008; Page A16

The May 11-14 front-page series "Careless Detention" implicitly raised the question of what purpose is served by incarcerating some 33,000 migrants and asylum seekers in the United States each day.

The scapegoating of migrants and asylum seekers and the deliberate fueling of fear by some politicians and parts of the media have been accompanied by measures that have trampled on their most basic human rights, including the right to liberty and personal security. In this atmosphere, detention is used as a punishment of first resort rather than as a measure of last resort, and the absence of oversight and accountability, severe overcrowding, outbreaks of contagious diseases, and poor nutrition and neglect -- if not worse -- lead to abuses and deaths.

Detained migrants should be provided with an effective opportunity to challenge the decision to detain them. Incredibly, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is not currently required to meet this minimal standard.

SARNATA REYNOLDS

Refugee and Migrant Director

Amnesty International USA

Washington

ยท


CONTINUED     1                 >

© 2008 The Washington Post Company