Scathing Report on Immigration Detention

Dr. Dora Schriro compiled a scathing report (by academic standards) of the U.S. immigration detention system that will deport around 400,000 people by the end of this year, filtering them through eight different programs and at least four different government agencies. More than 30,000 are currently being detained at any given time.

In the Upper Midwest, the problem is less concentrated than in areas nearer to Mexico, but it's still bad, with a handful of detention centers that show little accountability to the judicial process or human rights like this heartbreaking aggregation at the Ny Times. MinnPost did a good overview of our state's system recently.

You can read the report yourself, thanks to the New York Times.

Here's some key findings that I thought were striking:

• Felons and others of crimes make up less than half of detainees, and get mixed in with asylum seekers and others.
• New technology and the deputization of local authorities could swell the numbers of non-criminals filtered through the system.
  
• The facilities are built and run like jails, but with little of the expected accountability.
• Detainees often have no access to law libraries or access to the court, little or no recreation, no family contact or visitation, and no allowance for religious observations.
• Health intake is casual, with suicidal and mentally ill detainees locked in segregation.
• Lawyers and family often have trouble finding where detainees are being held.