Publication Date
5-1-2011
Document Type
Article
Abstract
This article evaluates the Obama administration’s efforts towards reforming U.S. immigration detention policies. Over the past decade, immigrant rights advocates have increasingly criticized certain policies of the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) system of immigration detention, including the widespread use of private contractors, lack of proper oversight, grouping of violent criminals and non-violent undocumented immigrants (particularly minority women and children) in holding cells, and neglect of detained immigrants in need of medical attention. In reviewing these developments, I contend that the Obama administration must take substantive steps towards reforming the existing system, particularly by instituting legally enforceable standards with penalties for performance failures, moving away from privatization, and applying more effective rulemaking for better management and monitoring of U.S. detention facilities.
Publication Title
Race, Gender & Class
Volume
18
Issue
1-2
Publisher
pol_sci_papers
Included in
American Politics Commons, Other Political Science Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Public Administration Commons, Public Policy Commons