Guest Blog
By Deborah de Santos
According to DHS/ICE, immigration detention is not punishment.
I agree – it is worse than punishment.
Prison sentences are punishment. They have a stated beginning and end. Facilities for incarcerated criminals are regulated by law regarding minimum standards of care and housing. Immigrants have none of those rights or safe guards in detention. They can and are held indefinitely. The conditions under which they are held would be illegal if applied to criminals. For some, the conditions they endure are illegal if done to a dog.
My friend was detained by ICE almost two years ago. While trying to help him I have witnessed conditions that I did not think existed in this country. You’ve probably read the stories of a woman chained down to give birth and men dying in agony while begging for medical help. If New England is any indication, these are not isolated incidents – they are standard for ICE detention.
Seeing my detained friend looking like a skeleton with skin despite eating all he was fed was my first shock. I remedied that through weekly payments to his prison account. The monthly expense of keeping him fed and able to reach me by phone quickly exceeded my mortgage payment. Comparing notes with other detainee’s families I learned they were all struggling with those same costs.
I have personally witnessed a detainee whose jaw had been severely broken under a guard’s boot – years later it was still left un-repaired. There are many such stories: an immigrant denied dialysis and insulin till he landed in the ICU, cancer patients in need of medication sent to “the hole” (isolation), reports of abuse resulting in retaliation rather than investigation. One detainee wrote me: “I can assure you that even the Communist Secret Police didn’t torture me in such a manner that I am currently experiencing in the land of the free!”
The detention units themselves exceed common restrictions applied to hardened criminals. Immigrants are locked in crowded cells, some unable to use a bathroom unless allowed, kept in prison uniforms, given limited visitation, prevented from accessing lawyers or obtaining necessary documents needed to defend themselves, denied books and religious material and kept from accessing facilities available to incarcerated criminals in the same prison.
DHS/ICE claims detention is not punishment.
I would like to know what their definition of punishment is.
Deborah de Santos is a human rights and immigration activist living in Northern New Hampshire. Check out her website @ www.OBFThePeople.org
