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.
