By Erik Ortíz -
NBC News
As the use of solitary confinement in immigration detention centers increases under Democrat Joe Biden's administration, federal data shows, several lawmakers in his party are demanding an end to the practice, or at least that rules be created that limit, accusing the Administration in a letter of being “in clear violation of international standards.”
Immigration and Customs Enforcement [ICE] “has isolated people in its facilities for months and even years; has used solitary confinement as punishment for minor infractions; and has placed vulnerable people in isolation, including some with mental health problems," denounced Massachusetts Senators Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren; and Illinois Senator Dick Durbin this Friday in a letter addressed to the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas. , and the acting deputy director of ICE, Patrick Lechleitner.
[Solitary confinement is increasingly used against detained immigrants, according to report]
“ICE has not followed its own guidelines that limit both the punitive use of solitary confinement and the imposition of additional forms of punishment in solitary confinement,” added the lawmakers, who were joined by eight other Democratic senators and independent Sen. Bernie Sanders for Vermont.
An immigrant detained in his "segregated cell" at the Adelanto facility in November 2013 in California.John Moore/Getty Images file
ICE statistics show the agency detains more than 38,000 people a day, an increase of about 15,000 detentions since Biden took office in January 2021.
The senators cited a study published last month that recorded 1,106 uses of "segregation" (known informally as solitary confinement) in the third quarter of 2023, up 61% from the previous year.
[Report reveals more than 122,000 people are held in solitary confinement in US prisons]
Researchers from Harvard University and the nonprofit group Physicians for Human Rights based the analysis on ICE's own data, also establishing that the agency placed people in solitary confinement more than 14,000 times in the past five years. with an average duration of 27 days, “well above the 15-day threshold that, according to United Nations human rights experts,
constitutes torture.”
Philip Torrey, a professor at Harvard Law School and a researcher on the study, said that given the findings, they would like to see ICE "end the use of segregation or at least begin a phase-out process to end its use." .
Democratic lawmakers agreed, writing in their letter that “at a minimum, the Department of Homeland Security and ICE should issue
binding rules limiting their use of solitary confinement and follow them.”
They explained that they are especially concerned about detainees in the most vulnerable populations, including
LGBTQ people and those with mental health and chronic medical conditions.
Physical and mental health remain the top reasons detained immigrants are placed in segregation, according to ICE data posted on its website, followed by disciplinary and protective custody issues.
Markey said he felt compelled to urge immigration authorities to “phase out” solitary confinement after reports of its use on detainees for even minor infractions or in retaliation for a hunger strike.
“Solitary confinement is unfair and cruel, and it is time for our government to stop using it,” Markey told NBC News, sister network of Noticias Telemundo.
The senators asked Mayorkas and Lechleitner for answers to several questions, including what steps have been taken to limit solitary confinement, what is the breakdown of the time people spend in it, and particularly how much the vulnerable population spends, and what they are doing the agency to respond to recommendations to hold the Government and oversight offices accountable to ensure clear and consistent segregation policies.
The Department of Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to requests for comment on the senators' letter or the study.
[At least 33 suicides in migrant detention centers in the US since 2004: “There are serious systemic failures”]
In 2013, ICE issued a directive that the use of segregation should be carefully weighed. “Segregated detention should occur only when necessary and under applicable detention standards,” the agency said at the time. “In particular, placement in administrative segregation due to special vulnerability should be used only as a last resort and when no other viable housing options exist,” it added.
The federal agency also agreed to protect transgender people in a 2015 memo.
Photo taken March 30, 2021, of the Rio Grande Valley Detention Center for Unaccompanied Minors in Donna, Texas.AP
Immigration advocacy groups remain dismayed by the use of solitary confinement and say the issue is taking on greater importance ahead of the upcoming election in which a rematch of the 2020 race between Biden and former Republican President Donald Trump is expected.
In 2019, an NBC News investigation in partnership with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and other news organizations found widespread use of solitary confinement for immigrants detained in ICE custody under the Barack Obama and Trump Administrations.
Concerns continue in detention centers under the Biden Administration, and people detained in Louisiana last year told NBC News about how threats and the use of solitary confinement were used as punishment. The president has also been criticized during his term for increased use of so-called restrictive housing in federal prisons, despite a campaign promise to end solitary confinement except for “very limited” reasons.
Last year, Democrats introduced bills in the Senate and House of Representatives to largely ban the practice among federal inmates and detainees.
Jesse Franzblau, a policy analyst at the National Immigrant Justice Center, which provides legal representation to detainees, said he believes what has been happening in federal facilities needs to change because it is “arbitrary.”
“There are already weak standards in terms of human rights and basic humanity, and there's not a lot of oversight and accountability from staff that just puts people in isolation and doesn't give them a chance to come out,” Franzblau said, “so It is what is seen on the ground when congressmen say that the Government is violating its own policies.”