THIS week, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) started releasing undocumented immigrants being held in immigration jails around the country — days before mandatory budget cuts go into effect across the government.
The White House was reportedly never consulted, but the Associated Press reported that President Obama’s spokesperson described undocumented immigrants who were released as “low risk, non-criminal detainees.”
This move is in line with the Department of Homeland Security’s plan to prioritize the detention of serious criminal offenders, given the agency’s scarce resources.
The looming budget cuts will reportedly affect DHS’ core operations, including border security and airport screening operations.
They will also impact the department’s ability to keep 34,000 immigration jail beds, as mandated by congress.
“We’re doing our very best to minimize the impacts of a sequester,” explained Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. “But there’s only so much I can do. I’m supposed to have 34,000 detention beds for immigration. How do I pay for those?”
US Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) officials said ICE has looked into several hundred cases of immigrants being held in jails, and placed them in what they call as “appropriate and more cost-effective forms of supervised release.”
The tag price of detaining an immigrant is $122 to $164 per detainee, the American Civil Liberties Union reports.
On the other hand, the National Immigration Forum estimated that it would cost the federal government only 30 cents to $14 per day to monitor a detainee on “supervised release.”
In 2011, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has reportedly detained 429,000 immigrants (more than twice of the 202,000 that were detained in 2002).
The Obama administration is said to have deported more undocumented immigrants than its predecessors.
While hundreds of undocumented immigrants may have been released, DHS officials say they will still face deportation proceedings. This measure is just being implemented to save money on the eve of the “sequester.”
Critics of the Obama administration, however, allege that the motivation for this initiative was more political than financial.
They expressed concern saying that the government just wants to let more immigrants stay in the country for political expediency.
On the other hand, immigrants advocates say this action should have been done a long time ago.
“It shouldn’t take a manufactured crisis in Washington to prompt our immigration agencies to actually take steps towards using government resources wisely or keeping families together,” Carolina Canizales of United We Dream told the New York Times.
When in immigration jails, undocumented immigrants are reportedly kept in prison-like conditions. Many of them complained about poor sanitation conditions, lack of medical services, and abusive treatment by detention personnel.
We asked viewers of Balitang America if undocumented immigrants should be imprisoned or if they should just be held under house arrest.
A majority of our viewers who voted (57 percent) said they should just be placed under house arrest so the government could save money. They contend that they are not really criminals and should not be in jail.
Forty-three percent, however, contend that these undocumented immigrants violated immigration laws, and are therefore criminals. They said that they deserve to go to jail and be deported.
What do you think? Is it a crime to be an undocumented immigrant? Should they be detained in jail before they are deported, or should they just be placed under house arrest?
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Gel Santos Relos is the anchor of TFC’s “Balitang America.” Views and opinions expressed by the author in this column are are solely those of the author and not of Asian Journal and ABS-CBN-TFC. For comments, go towww.TheFil-AmPerspective.com, https://www.facebook.com/Gel.Santos.Relos
