Immigration detention reforms on the cards
The Obama administration has launched a new plan to salvage the immigration detention system ridden with scandals, especially lockups at federal, state, and local levels during the presidency of George W. Bush.
The plan has its origins in the proposals mooted by Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary and John Morton, the director of Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE). The suggestions mainly focus on providing better detention conditions and better medical care for the detainees as well as holding a trail of preventable injuries and deaths. The stated purpose of their proposals is to make the immigration detention system less expensive and more accountable and efficient.
The new immigration reform plan reflects a change in the attitude of the government that not all detainees are violent criminals. They could be asylum seekers, young mothers and their children, even respected members of communities whose brush with law was due to a lapsed visa.
If they do not have a genuine reason for staying, they should be deported immediately and not confined in detention centers. Those who need to be detained will be detained “in settings commensurate with the risk of flight and danger they present.”
The ICE also plans to unveil a new medical classification system to improve medical care and bring down unnecessary medical transfers. However, the details of the scheme are yet to be clarified by ICE.
The most important of all immigration reform measures is that, central control over subcontracted system has been reaffirmed. This stresses that central control is a smarter and cheaper option. The entire plan will be well within the budget as there is less dependence on contractors who perform important federal duties.
If these policies turn out to be a success and if they continue to be implemented, it will make up for years of neglect suffered under previous administrations.