Real Accountability for Deaths in the Immigrant Detention System

Immigrant deaths in detention were a driving force behind pressuring the Obama administration into promising to overhaul the sprawling and inhumane immigrant detention system last August.

While the administration has made some modest steps forward, their strategy lacks one crucial element: accountability.

Take the case of Hiu Lui Ng. Hiu Lui Ng was a Chinese computer engineer detained in Rhode Island. Security cameras caught guards mocking him as he screamed, while they dragged him from his cell.  He was suffering from undiagnosed cancer and a broken spine. He finally got care only through an appeal to a federal judge.

Now Ng's family is seeking to hold the government accountable for his mistreatment. But the government argues that it can't be held liable because it contracted out for Ng's detention.

The left hand doesn't seem to know what the right hand is doing.

Last fall, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued public a report on the system by now former DHS-aid Dora B. Schriro. Schiro’s report lays out some highlights on the scope and gravity of the system’s problems, including significantly, outsourcing.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) outsources not only detention, but also monitoring and evaluation functions, which were performed primarily by the private sector at a cost of $31 million in FY 2009. One might think that such a delegation of authority would include written policies and procedures or technical manuals specific to detention -- but ICE has failed to create any such written guidance.

One of Schiro's key recommendations is for ICE to improve the scope of managing and monitoring. But while ICE is taking steps to address the way in which private contractors frustrate attempts to enforce transparency and accountability in the system, the government is arguing in court that it was “completely unfair” to expect an agency “that has no contact with the detainee on a regular basis,” to know that Mr. Ng was in dire condition.

ICE's recognition that more oversight might be needed over private contractors is welcome and long overdue.  But recognizing that oversight has been lacking should also mean taking responsibility for abuses.

For another article on this situation, check out Alex DiBranco's piece over at the Immigrant Rights blog, "Government Argues It Can't Be Held Responsible for Detainee Abuse."

Photo credit: Clara Long