Model Immigrant Detention Center Dehumanizing and Wasteful

Americans for Immigrant Justice (AI Justice) released a report that details the stories of persons detained at the Broward Transition Center (BTC) to exhibit how that facility needlessly detains immigrants in inhumane conditions, wasting millions of taxpayer dollars annually and treating “non-criminal and low risk” immigrants like “animals.”

BTC is operated by the GEO Group under a contract with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE). The facility has 700 beds and costs taxpayers more than $40 million annually. On average, it costs $164 daily to house a detainee.

Conditions at BTC came to the attention of lawmakers and the public last year after two illegal immigrants brought to U.S. as children turned themselves into BTC. When it was learned they were working with outside elements to expose the inhuman conditions and policy violations at BTC, they were promptly released.

The 71 page report states that BTC detains people who, by ICE’s own definition, should be eligible for prosecutorial discretion. “They include pregnant and nursing mothers, primary caregivers of minor children, U.S. Military Veterans, victims of domestic violence and other serious crimes, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival eligible youth, individuals without criminal records, arriving immigrants who have been found to have a credible fear or reasonable fear of returning to their home countries, and those who lives in the United States for more than 10 years or have U.S. citizen or permanent resident family members.”

It also cited cases where detainees were denied competent medical care, even in cases where they were hurt working in BTC’s kitchen for $1 a day. Such care was also denied to detainees who were victims of sexual assault or rape. It was documented that BTC staff regularly ignored complaints or rape or sexual assault, and it was stated that such occurrences are recurring due to systematic failures. Of those, is the failure to properly screen detainees, take complaints seriously, and not offer counseling to victims.

Among the problems at BTC are three suicide attempts in 2011 and the failure to send detainees to outside psychiatrists within two weeks as required by ICE standards. BTC has no resident mental health professional and many detainees are given psychotropic or other drugs to sedate them in lieu of mental health therapy or a release order, the report says.

Little regard is given to the detainees. A guard at BTC asked an AI Justice attorney in November 2010, “I don’t know how you do what you do, it’s not like they are people.”

That attitude is felt by the detainees. “The security guards at BTC treat us like we are nobody, like we are not human beings,” a detainee told an AI Justice attorney in September 2012. “We are not criminals. We are just immigrants.”

In 2009 ICE praised BTC as a “model” for civil detention, touting it as offering “a less restrictive, yet secure environment.” While BTC may offer a better environment than a local jail, it serves as a indictment of the reform that was supposed to occur in the nation’s troubled detention facilities with a 2009 announcement by ICE Chief John Morton.

“If officers in a ‘model’ civil detention facility view detainees as subhuman and treat them as such, how much worse are detainees in local jails, state prisons, and other for-profit prisons contracted by ICE?” asks the report, “It’s not surprising, then, that evidence suggests detainee abuse widespread.”

It is estimated by the National Immigration forum that ICE detention will cost taxpayers $5.4 million per day or nearly $2 billion, for the 2013 fiscal year. AI Justice says it is senseless to spend an average of $164 daily to detain persons who pose no threat to their community or national security when there are existing alternative programs that run from 30 cents to $14 per day. More than a billion dollars could be saved annually if ICE focused on detaining and deporting dangerous criminals.

AI Justice concluded by saying that until ICE reforms detention centers such as BTC, detainees will continue to suffer abusive and dehumanizing treatment. The March 2013 report, Broward Transitional Center: A ‘model’ for Civil Detention, is available on PLN’s website.