IMMIGRATION DETAINEES PETITION HOMELAND SECURITY TO ISSUE ENFORCEABLE,COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION DETENTION STANDARDS

For Immediate Release
Contact: Paromita Shah (202) 271-2286

IMMIGRATION DETAINEES PETITION HOMELAND SECURITY TO ISSUE ENFORCEABLE,
COMPREHENSIVE IMMIGRATION DETENTION STANDARDS

January 25, 2007

WASHINGTON, DC - Eighty-four immigration detainees, the National
Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, and six other
immigrant rights organizations will formally petition the Department of
Homeland Security today (DHS) to issue regulations, under the
Administrative Procedures Act, governing detention standards for
immigration detainees. Currently, the treatment of immigration
detainees, including living conditions, health care, and access to legal
materials, is governed by a DHS detention manual, which is neither
legally enforceable nor universally applied.

"DHS is one of the largest jailers in the world," said Paromita Shah,
Associate Director of the National Immigration Project of the National
Lawyers Guild, which organized the petition effort. "But it behaves
like a lawless local sheriff. The refusal to adopt comprehensive,
binding regulations has contributed to a system in which thousands of
immigration detainees are routinely denied necessary medical care,
visitation, legal materials, or functioning telephones."

"I was detained for six years," said Rafiu Abimbola, one of the detainee
petitioners. "The telephones frequently did not work and legal
materials were unavailable or out of date. Because I was managing my
case on my own, this was extremely hard for me. DHS did not attempt to
fix these problems. When I complained to the jail, I never received a
response, and sometimes was punished for complaining. There are no
consequences to the government for failing to obey its own standards."

Last week, a report by the DHS Office of Inspector General, based on an
audit of five facilities where immigration detainees have been held,
confirmed the existence of widespread violations of the agency's
detention manual and flaws in the detention standard compliance
monitoring process.

"The DHS manual fails to address many basic aspects of detention," said
Michael Wishnie, a law professor who supervised the preparation of the
petition. "And what standards the manual does include are weak and
unenforceable. It is time for DHS to act like the mature detention
agency it has become."

The need for enforceable, uniform standards that establish clear lines
of accountability is especially critical in light of the patchwork
system of detention currently employed to house detainees: in addition
to using its own facilities, DHS contracts with local jails and
privately operated prisons for this purpose. By issuing detention
regulations that carry the force of law, the government will be better
able to ensure humane and uniform treatment of detainees and prevent
future violations.

"The standards need some teeth or people will continue to get hurt,"
added Camal Marchabeyoglu, a detainee petitioner released from the
Correctional Corporation of America's San Diego facility.

The additional petitioners are the American Immigration Lawyers
Association, American Immigration Law Foundation Legal Action Center,
Casa de Proyecto Libertad, Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc.,
Families for Freedom, and National Immigrant Justice Center. The
petition was prepared by students at New York University School of Law,
under the supervision of Professor Wishnie, now at Yale Law School.