In 2008, the U.S. government detained nearly 400,000 people, more than triple the number of people in detention a decade ago. Immigrant detainees are held in a network of over 400 state and private facilities at a cost of more than 1.2 billion dollars a year.
- Immigrants with no previous criminal record are the fastest growing segment of the detained population and those in detention include families, both documented and undocumented immigrants, asylum seekers, many of whom are survivors of torture, pregnant women, women who have just given birth, as well as individuals who are seriously physical or mentally ill and lack access to proper care and medication.
- The Department of Homeland Security has created a massive civil prison system with few of the safeguards that are taken for granted in the criminal justice system. Although Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has promulgated a set of national detention standards designed to facilitate consistent conditions of confinement in the myriad of facilities that DHS uses to house immigrants, as well as insure access to legal representation and basic medical care, these standards lack an enforcement mechanism and are routinely violated with impunity by federal and contract facilities holding immigrant detainees.
- The average cost of detaining a migrant is $95 per person, per day. Alternatives to detention can cost as little as $12 a day. A study by the Vera Institute of Justice found that such alternatives to detention were generally effective with 91% of the immigrants who participated in an intensive supervision program appearing for all their required court hearings.
- ICE’s approved 2009 budget provides for an additional 1,000 detention beds, bringing the total number of beds to a record. 33,000.