The Center for Immigration Studies will host a virtual panel discussion
Monday, April 13, at 1 p.m. on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention and whether the institutional conditions of detention centers necessitate the release of immigrant detainees due to the coronavirus. Panelists will discuss the public safety and legal implications of releases.
Center experts will be joined by
Bristol County (Mass.) Sheriff Thomas Hodgson, who has been ordered by a federal judge to release 45 detainees from the Bristol County House of Correction; releases are to continue on a rolling basis.
Panelists will discuss the
ICE Performance-Based National Detention Standards (PBNDS), revised in December 2016, and explore how they apply in a pandemic or medical emergency situation. They will try to answer the question: Which scenario – release or continued detention – is the more responsible policy, for the individual detainee and for the American public?
Stream: Scheduled streams will be live at 1 p.m. Monday on both
Facebook and
YouTube. We will also have an unscheduled stream on our
Twitter feed.
Questions: Questions can be sent prior to or during the event to
[email protected] or on twitter to
@CIS_org.
Sheriff Hodgson said, "Ironically, of my 850 detainees/inmates, we have had no COVID 19 cases since the pandemic began and this Judge is releasing these detainees under a 'humanitarian' claim. I can think of nothing more inhumane than letting dangerous people wander around our neighborhoods, based on a claim that maybe, just maybe they could contract COVID 19 in the detention center."
"Detainees deserve to be housed in safe, healthy facilities. But policymakers must compare their situation in the facility to their safety outside of the facility, and the availability of treatment inside to that outside of the facility," said
Andrew Arthur, the Center's resident fellow in law and policy and former immigration judge in a detention facility. "And, who should be making these decisions? What if a single judge says to empty the jails and detention centers completely? Judges should not be controlling policy, in this manner."
Dan Cadman, a Center fellow and retired INS/ICE official, said, "Policymakers must also remember that detention often serves public safety, because most of the aliens taken into detention are convicted criminals. Once released, most of these individuals will re-offend."
