Immigration detention in the United States

Immigration detention in the United States began in 1890s at Ellis Island. The administration of President Ronald Reagan further reacted to the mass migration of asylum seekers who arrived in boats from Haiti by establishing a program to interdict (i.e., stop and search certain vessels suspected of transporting undocumented Haitians). As the number of undocumented immigrants who were fleeing economic and political conditions increased, President Bush Sr's administration attempted to find a regional location to handle the influx of refugees and migrants. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) arranged for several countries in the region—Belize, Honduras, Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela—to temporarily provide a safe haven for Haitians however the Coast Guard was becoming increasingly overcrowded from holding hundreds of refugees and by November 18, 1991, the United States forcibly returned 538 Haitians to Haiti. Since the options for safe havens in third countries in the region proved inadequate for the sheer numbers of Haitians fleeing their country, the Coast Guard took them to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo, Cuba, where they were pre-screened for asylum in the United States.

Mandatory detention was then officially authorized by the federal government in 1996 with the enactment of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act (IIRAIRA). From 1996 to 1998, the number of immigrants in detention increased from 8,500 to 16,000 and by 2008 this number increased to more than 30,000. According to the Global Detention Project, the United States possesses the largest immigration detention system in the world. In 2003, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) was created under the Department of Homeland Security. ICE enforces the United States’ immigration and customs laws, uses investigative techniques to apprehend and detain those suspected of violating them, and then deports many of these individuals. The Office of Detention and Removal Operations (DRO), housed within ICE, oversees the detention and deportation of immigrants taken into custody by ICE. Currently, ICE detains immigrants in fifteen detention centers (including privatized facilities), in state and local jails, in juvenile detention centers, and in shelters.

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