Bed mandate keeps detention beds full

Americans face the real possibility of another government shutdown by weeks end after bipartisan talks aimed at averting such an outcome broke down. In a weird turn of events, President Trump's border wall demands, which precipitated the recently concluded shutdown, were a secondary issue in the current impasse.

Negotiations appeared to collapse over Democrats' insistence on limiting the number of non-immigrated residents who can be detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Democrats say a cap of 16,500 beds in ICE detention centers would force the Trump Administration to focus on detaining non-immigrated residents with criminal records instead of using indiscriminate sweeps that ensnare otherwise law-abiding residents. This argument is not new but it is important. Euphemistically, it's called the bed mandate.

Congress introduced the bed mandate into the DHS Appropriations Act in 2009. The bed mandate pre-determines the number of detention beds available to detain non-immigrated residents daily. Today, some members of Congress and ICE leadership have interpreted the language to make it mandatory that ICE fill 34,000 beds daily. The Trump Administration is raising it to 50,000. The number of beds is decided by legislators instead of law enforcement. No other law enforcement agency in America is subject to a statutory quota on the number of people who must be incarcerated daily.

As reliance on automatic imprisonment escalates, Democratic policy makers are realizing that rapidly expanding civil detention is tearing communities apart with its cruel immigration policies and imposing heavy fiscal burdens on taxpayers and intangible social costs on the incarcerated families. Without thoughtful prior justification and prudent leadership, exposing women, children and infants to the harsh conditions of criminal confinement, loss of employment, family break up and extreme financial hardships is patently wrong. Democratic border security negotiators believe a cap on ICE detention beds will force the Trump Administration to focus on deportation of criminals and people who pose real security threats.

My beef is not with the government's authority to detain anyone who represents a threat to national security or good order. Most Americans agree legal authority to detain is necessary. My concern is with how that detention power is wielded.

Immigration detention has devolved into a system that is routinely used to criminally punish civil detainees. For example, incarcerating families, without any form of due process, in an effort to dissuade other refugees from attempting to seek asylum which is wrong.

ICE'S civil immigration detention system functions to deprive non-immigrated residents of social and physical liberty in the same way that criminal incarceration does, without any form of due process. That's wrong.

Immigration detainees are incarcerated in the same jails and prisons and subjected to the same disciplinary regimen as convicted felons and criminal defendants. That's wrong.

The lives of civil immigration detainees are regulated in the same way as the lives of those whose confinement results from a criminal conviction. That's wrong.

Needless detention of non-immigrated residents is currently costing taxpayers more than $20,000,000 daily and, under the president's new incarceration order, the cost will unnecessarily soar into the hundreds of millions daily. That's wrong.

The Trump Administration may rightly believe the struggle of individuals is of little consequence when compared to the national interest and social order. However, while conserving social order, we should not ruthlessly ignore or unnecessarily destroy the moral and social future of individuals who may be here without permission. That's just plain wrong.

As citizens, we have a civil and moral responsibility to ensure that decisions of policy makers are firmly rooted in the Constitution. The Administration can't wield the law as it sees fit. Their decisions and pronouncements must be just, practical and firmly tethered to truth and the law. We cannot allow the administration to lose sight of the fact each non-immigrated resident here represents a human being who counts on us to treat them fairly and in accordance with our laws. A "silent" public is a consenting public. We know what is really going on but we choose to ignore it. That's just plain wrong.

Ricardo Inzunza, a native of San Diego, California, was appointed Deputy Commissioner of the former Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) by President George H. W. Bush`. During his 8-year tenure, his office was the central source for the development, implementation and oversight of all immigration service policies and practices. Now as CEO of RIA International, Ltd, Ricardo is often asked to serve as a business consultant to clients such as the World Bank and the Peoples Republic of China. He can be reached at 202 664 3274 (M), or riatria@aol.com