Over the past 15 years, officials at all
immigration detention facilities, including those operated by private prison companies, have been required
to abide by a number of rules designed to protect detainees and ensure
some basic rights. For instance, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
detention facilities currently must notify immigration officials if an
immigrant detainee spends more than two weeks in solitary confinement.
Detention facilities must provide information to detainees about available
medical care in their own languages and offer an English-speaking individual
to advocate on a detainee’s behalf in disciplinary proceedings.
The Trump administration, however, is taking immediate steps toward removing
these and other rules that exist specifically to protect the rights of
immigrant detainees. The administration is closing ICE’s Office
of Detention Policy and the Planning, which is the office that formerly
developed and promulgated these rules and regulations. Perhaps in hopes
of encouraging more local sheriffs to enter into housing contracts with
immigration officials and making the immigration detention center business
more attractive for private prison companies, new jail contracts will
contain far fewer and less detailed regulations for facility administrators
to follow. For instance, instead of requiring that a detainee’s
request for medical care be evaluated by a professional within 24 hours,
jails need only have procedures to provide medical care to detainees as
needed, which obviously is a much less strenuous requirement. In most
respects, immigrant detainees now will be subject to the same rules as
incarcerated criminal defendants. Nonetheless, criminal defendants enjoy
constitutional rights that immigrant detainees do not; whereas those accused
of crimes have a right to legal counsel, for example, immigrant detainees
have no such right.
Landerholm Immigration, A.P.C., has the experience that you need when you are facing deportation charges.
We know how to gather the facts that are relevant to your case, assess
your options, and determine whether you have any legal defenses that may
enable you to avoid deportation and remain in the U.S. Contact the Oakland
immigration attorneys at our office today and learn how we potentially
can help you and your family through this difficult situation.
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If you want to know more about the Biden's Proposed Immigration Reform, watch our video!