Tuesday, June 28, 2011

New Report on Detainee Abuses

According to a new report on immigration detention, in ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) custody "medical requests are ignored, detainee grievances are scoffed at, and immigrants are held in violation of their due-process rights for inhumane amounts of time."

In analyzing nearly 500 grievances, the ACLU determined that few are given any sort of serious consideration by the government. These are grievances from primarily civilian detainees; meaning these folks committed no crime other than being in the country illegally. The Obama administration has claimed it is committed to improving conditions for these people, but no tangible improvements have been seen as of yet.

Our immigration detention system is a deplorable stain on our reputation. A large portion of the system is run by private companies, mainly the GEO Group (and CCA to a lesser extent), which Dick Cheney (who obviously had a strong hand in our immigration policy during his tenure) used to be invested in. But that should come as no surprise, since he was also invested in Halliburton and Blackwater, two other companies that earned millions during the Bush administration by destroying lives and livelihoods.

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