In recent days, much has been made of the release of immigrants being held in detention centers and jails around the country. We are told these releases are due to budget cuts imposed by sequestration at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
It is ironic, to say the least, that it has taken sequestration to raise questions about a situation known to many as "Deportation Nation." According to a New York Times review of Homeland Security statistics, "deportations under the Obama administration are on track to hit two million by the end of this year — nearly the same number of deportations from the United States between 1892 and 1997."
Many of those deportations are the result of the detention of low-level offenders (like speeders and people driving without licenses).
Despite protestations by the administration that priority has been given to deporting people with criminal convictions, more than 50 percent of those deported over the past four years have not had such records. This is, simply put, an ineffective use of taxpayer dollars.
The recent releases raise important questions. Why are we spending between $120 and $160 per person per day to detain more than 30,000 people? For fiscal 2013, the Obama administration requested $1.96 billion for DHS custody operations. Why are we spending $2 billion dollars a year on such operations? Are there more cost-effective alternatives to detention? Does the detention and deportation machine, revved up to record levels, need to be slowed in light of impending reform to the immigration system? And how and why are people ending up in detention in the first place?
Efforts are underway to provide an effective, lower-cost and more-humane alternative to detention while providing incentives for people to follow through with the process. These efforts are funded by a small grant from the Lutherans and Presbyterians.
I and my students at St. Thomas join efforts with the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota and the Advocates for Human Rights to secure legal representation. Guadalupe Alternative Programs of St. Paul, as well as social workers and psychologists from St. Thomas, provide case management and therapeutic services. A group of volunteers called Conversation with Friends visits people in detention. In cases where an individual would need housing for a short time, St. Stephen's Human Services, Simpson Housing Services and Sarah's … an Oasis for Women are contacted.
Releasing people from detention does not mean letting them off the hook. They still are required to appear for hearings. Failure to appear results in an automatic removal order and the risk of summary deportation. According to Homeland Security, existing alternatives range in cost from 17 cents per day to $18 per day. Really. And people do show up for their proceedings.
