The Hill News

On February 28, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas) issued a statement criticizing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for releasing new national standards for immigration detention facilities. Entitled, “Deportation Manual: a Hospitality Guideline for Illegal Immigrants,” his statement makes imprisonment sound like a hotel visit. In so doing, Mr. Smith belittles the fact that each year 400,000 people â€" including thousands of asylum seekers, trafficking victims, families with children, the elderly and the sick â€" are jailed while they await civil immigration court proceedings in facilities that bear no resemblance even to the cheapest motel.

In 2008, Francisco Castaneda died of penile cancer after detention staff refused his numerous attempts to obtain diagnosis and treatment at a San Diego detention facility. Over the years cases like his and the substandard conditions in immigration detention have been well-documented by 60 Minutes, National Public Radio,! The New York Times, and The Washington Post. In many facilities, detainees endure a myriad of abuses including a lack of adequate medical and mental health care that has led to numerous unnecessary deaths. As recently as October 2011, PBS Frontline revealed frightening accounts of sexual abuse by guards in the Willacy, Texas detention center.

Detention facilities should not jeopardize the health and safety of those in custody and that is why stricter standards are absolutely necessary. The national standards ICE announced last week are an important step. They are not a hospitality guide, but minimal standards to prevent mistreatment, injury, or death. Moreover, concerns remain that these new standards are insufficient to hold accountable the hundreds of facilities under ICE contract.

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