Immigration debate brings issue of sexual abuse in detention facilities to forefront
theGRIO REPORT - Advocates for undocumented immigrants see them as highly susceptible to abuse, including sexual abuse, while under U.S. government custody...
Kimberly told the ALCU that ICE was able to identify her attacker, because he had confessed to similar crimes, so they believed her allegations. Yet, advocates worry that similar violations could be occurring at or near the many facilities that detain undocumented immigrants, particularly on the borders, where external oversight of the detention system is particularly lacking.
Jennifer Podkul, program officer for the Migrant Rights and Justice Program of the Women’s Refugee Commission, is deeply concerned about potential sexual abuse at CBP border facilities. She says that such abuse regularly occurs based on immigrant self-reporting.
According to Podkul, “we hear about a lot of abuses that are happening in these CBP facilities, and we can’t go in them and conduct any monitoring or regular oversight. So they are a real black hole.”
CBP has declined requests to meet with the Women’s Refugee Commission about this issue, the Women’s Refugee Commission states.
“[U]nfortunately, we’ve heard horrible stories about what happens to people when they’re in these facilities,” Podkul said.
CBP has not responded to theGrio’s requests for response to these allegations.
ICE responds to abuse allegations
In response to similar allegations, ICE said in a statement that it “maintains a strict zero tolerance policy for any kind of abusive or inappropriate behavior and requires all contractors working with the agency to adhere to this policy.”
The agency added that many procedures have been implemented between 2008 and 2012 to protect immigrant detainees from sexual abuse, including the appointment of a Prevention of Sexual Assault Coordinator in May 2012.
The agency plans to provide addition oversight through “announced and unannounced inspections” and “regular facility visits from ICE staff,” its statement reads.
More than 40 Detention Services Managers have also been hired to try to ensure that the updated processes are properly implemented, ICE states.
ICE also plans to release “mandatory training for all employees who may come into contact with individuals in ICE custody” this month. It said this training will address the “dynamics of sexual abuse in confinement” among other teaching points.
These efforts, ICE said, will ensure an effective response to all sexual abuse allegations made by immigrants in detention. “The agency is absolutely committed to ensuring all detainees in our custody are held and treated in a safe, secure, and humane manner,” its statement affirms.
Read the full statement ICE released to theGrio about its sexual abuse prevention measures here.
Michelle Brané, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program of the Women’s Refugee Commission, acknowledges these efforts, but believes they are insufficient.
“I go to facilities all the time, and always one of the questions we ask is what their procedures are with respect to sexual assault,” she told theGrio. “I can tell you that over the years the responses are shocking in the sense that they are inconsistent and not very detailed. It’s clear when we ask the question that people are not familiar with the procedures, or that they are uncomfortable with them.”
For Brané, an essential flaw in the ICE methodology that has not been addressed is the means by which a complaint is validated.
“Our big concern,” Brané said, regarding what happens when her group quizzes ICE workers, and the wording of the agency’s regulations for reporting abuse, “is that in many cases there is an initial kind of determination made about whether a claim or complaint is valid or legitimate.”
Brané is concerned that even with the level of oversight ICE provides, immigrant detainees are susceptible to potential biases within the organization.
“What they say to us when they are explaining this is, ‘people will very often just claim assault or harassment as a way of retaliating against the guards they are mad at,'” she said. “And I get that that might be the case, but it is of great concern to us that it could be the guards or the guards’ colleagues who are making that initial determination about whether this is valid. It really, in my view, has to be someone at a higher level who is removed from a personal connection.”
Immigrant sexual abuse victims often left unprotected
Under current law, there is no provision requiring outside agencies to evaluate sexual abuse allegations made by detainees at U.S. immigration facilities. Immigrant detainees have been denied this and other necessary protections against sexual abuse due to a failure in policy, their advocates say.
By contrast, American citizens who are incarcerated in U.S. facilities are protected by a 2003 law called the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which guarantees outside prison observers. PREA was developed in part to cover facilities run by what was once called the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), under the Department of Justice (DOJ).
In 2003 INS was dissolved. The Department of Homeland Security, through its new ICE and CBP branches, was tasked in 2003 with patrolling the American interior and borders respectively to control the influx of undocumented workers.
Due to this transition, PREA does not contain language pertaining to DHS, only DOJ; this leaves hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants less protected from sexual abuse than they would be under a federally-enforced policy that is similar to PREA.
The Violence Against Women Act brings change
The recently re-authorized Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) passed in March contains provisions requiring DHS to promulgate its own set of regulations that will emulate PREA and protect unauthorized immigrants. These rules will apply to both ICE and CBP, offering undocumented immigrants uniform protection from sexual abuse across these agencies.
In December 2012, DHS proposed its version of PREA rules, and solicited comments for improvement from various organizations, including the ACLU and Amnesty International.
There is a legislative requirement to complete this task through VAWA, along with pressure from the Obama administration. The final DHS rules regarding PREA “will be published in the Federal Register later this year,” according to ICE.
Until then, immigrant advocacy groups await the outcome.
“What we want DHS to do is at minimum accept the standard that is now the rule for prisons and jails around the country, and that is an outside audit every three years by an independent, qualified auditor,” Fettig said.
Protecting immigrants and American ideals
To critics who might argue that protecting undocumented immigrants should not be a high priority compared to ensuring American citizens’ needs and safety, Fettig of the ACLU counters that protecting immigrants’ rights is an essential part of upholding American ideals. To Fettig and other civil liberties advocates, the Constitution applies everywhere, even to unauthorized immigrants behind bars, she told theGrio.
“I would say that any immigration reform, any immigration policy that reflects American values has to take into account what happens to people when we detain them,” Fettig said. “We have a responsibility to our laws, our people and our values to ensure that even if people cross our borders illegally, they are treated with the dignity and respect that we expect all people to be treated with. And that includes ensuring that they are not subject to sexual abuse at our hands.”
Follow Alexis Garrett Stodghill on Twitter at @lexisb.
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