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Legal Momentum Applauds Promise of Immigration Detention Overhaul, But Emphasizes Urgent Need for Broad Immigration Enforcement Reform

Legal Momentum applauds the Department of Homeland Security’s release of its report, “Immigration Detention Overview and Recommendations” and notes that the Department’s recently announced plans to overhaul the broken immigration detention system are a positive step towards a humane and civil detention system. More reform, however, is still needed.

Legal Momentum agrees with the report’s recommendations that women detained in immigration custody should have access to legal services and not be placed in isolated facilities.  However, the report bypasses the larger issue of why DHS persists in needlessly detaining immigrant women who have no place in these facilities.  Despite legal protections available for immigrant crime victims and immigrant mothers taking care of young children, DHS currently has no effective policy in place to determine if women fall into these categories when they are taken into custody, resulting in unnecessary detentions, fractured families, and unprosecuted crimes. 

Currently, the immigration detention system traps within it countless victims of violence and abuse.  Many non-citizen victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, rape, human trafficking or other violent crimes who cooperate with law enforcement authorities in reporting, investigating, and prosecuting the crimes are eligible for legal remedies enabling them to reside and work lawfully in the US.   Detained women often fall into this category, as many are victims of sexual or gender-based violence. 

Because DHS does not screen detainees when they enter the system to determine if they are victims of crime, the department needlessly wastes money detaining non-citizens eligible for legal immigration remedies. Detention also depletes important resources for local law enforcement by intimidating and increasing the vulnerability of victims and witnesses to crimes, whose participation and testimony in criminal prosecutions would make communities safer.  

DHS has met with Legal Momentum and other advocates on these and other pressing issues, such as alternatives to detention, the plight of children separated from their parents by detention, and immigrant women detainees’ access to appropriate health care.  DHS’ heightened enforcement efforts, however, make immediate reform all the more critical.  DHS should end programs, like Secure Communities and the 287(g) program, which instill fear and distrust among immigrant communities and undermine public safety.  The department should also adopt procedures to screen all immigrants caught in enforcement actions or entering detention facilities to determine if they are victims of crime. 

Likewise, DHS officers should screen for detainees that have children or other caretaking responsibilities. For victims of crime and immigrant parents and caretakers, DHS should offer humanitarian release on personal recognizance. Moreover, DHS should facilitate immigrants’ access to victim-service providers, and enable immigrant crime-victims to cooperate with law enforcement officials in investigating and prosecuting the crimes perpetrated against them. All DHS personnel, particularly those working directly with immigrants, should receive training on identifying crime-victims, cooperating with victim service providers and honoring special victim confidentiality protections.

Legal Momentum looks forward to continuing to work with DHS to create such screening mechanisms and policies that move closer to a reformed detention system.

For more information on Legal Momentum’s work in this area, visit Legal Momentum's Immigrant Women Program.