In response to an ACLU lawsuit,
DHS announced an additional 11 unreported
deaths in immigration detention centers since 2004. This brings the total
number of known deaths to 104 in the past five years. The ACLU has filed several
lawsuits under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) against the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS), Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the DHS
Office of the Inspector General (OIG) over the past few years relating to this
issue. Repeatedly these agencies and organizations have not been transparent
about deaths resulting from inadequate conditions and treatment at immigration
detention facilities.
The standards for convicted
prisoners are well known; 8th Amendment cases provide much precedent.
Immigrant detainees are not convicted prisoners, however. They are civil detainees in violation of civil immigration law. Because of this
distinction, immigrant detainee rights derive from the 5th Amendment,
which protects people in the US from any treatment
that amounts to punishment without due process of law. The 9th
Circuit of the US Court of Appeals has recognized that in the very
least immigrant detainees are entitled to conditions better than
those of pre-trial detainees or convicted prisoners. Despite this recognition by
the courts, DHS has non-binding standards for the conditions of detention
centers. Without accountability, no justice can be served for the deaths of
immigrant detainees.
The ACLU will continue to
challenge these conditions until DHS acknowledges the constitutional and human
rights of immigrant detainees by bettering the conditions of detention centers.