Report finds detainees' rights routinely violated in US immigrant detention

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has been systematically violating its own minimum monitoring standards in regulating immigration detention centers across the country, according to a new report released Tuesday. The report is based on an analysis of previously unreleased inspection data on dozens of ICE facilities between 2001 and 2005. In recent months, Facing South has reported on the problems in U.S. immigrant detention, highlighted by the mounting number of immigrant deaths in ICE detention centers. For the past year, reports of abuse, neglect, inhumane treatment, and inadequate health care in immigration custody have been surfacing across the country. Immigrant rights groups have criticized ICE's detention standards and inspection procedures, and have also steadily lodged complaints about detainees' rights being violated. The new report, authored jointly by the the National Immigration Law Center, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, and the Holland and Knight law firm, confirmed detention centers routinely had "widespread and severe violations," and the government failed to enforce even its own minimum standards.