Immigration legislation sponsored by U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) would eliminate privately operated detention centers and make major changes at such government-run facilities.
Over three years, the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act would phase out for-profit detention facilities, including Delaney Hall in Newark, which Booker toured on Friday, and the Elizabeth Detention Center.
The legislation would also end mandatory detention and solitary confinement and require the Department of Homeland Security to conduct regular unannounced inspections of the centers. Almost 70,000 people suspected of skirting immigration law were in detention nationwide in December, ICE data show.
“It is time we begin standing up to end what I believe is moral abomination in our country,” Booker said outside Delaney Hall on Friday morning. “Through this bill that I am reintroducing, we can end the unjust profit-making scheme of for-profit detention centers like the one behind me by banning them. We can end mandatory detentions of our immigrant neighbors.”
Reps. Rob Menendez (D-8th) and LaMonica McIver (D-10th) are sponsoring companion legislation in the House. The announcement comes after all but seven House Democrats voted Thursday to block Homeland Security funding, including $10 billion for ICE. The move from Democrats was in protest against ICE tactics in cities like Minneapolis.
The funding bill does include some reforms, among them a requirement that ICE agents wear body cameras.
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