Immigration Detention & Human Rights in the Lone Star State

Liane N. Noble

Abstract

Every year, almost 400,000 individuals are held in immigration detention in the United States. These individuals—men, women, and even children—are held in a patchwork of federal, local, and private contract facilities. Surprisingly, one-third of all U.S. immigration detention beds are located in the state of Texas. Given the concentration of detention space in Texas and thus the unique issues facing that state, this report seeks to elucidate the key human rights issues surrounding immigration detention with a focus on the situation in Texas.

The information contained in this report was gathered using a variety of research methods, including: (1) review of relevant scholarly articles, human rights reports, government reports, international materials, and news articles, (2) in-person and telephone interviews with fifteen legal and policy advocates working with clinics and non-profit organizations focused on immigration detention issues, (3) observations at immigration court proceedings, (4) visits to six immigration detention facilities in Texas, (5) interviews with employees of Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as employees of private prison corporations, and (6) interviews with eight individuals being held in immigration detention in Texas. The Background section of this paper provides a snapshot of immigration detention in Texas, explains the legal framework under which the Unites States detains immigrants and briefly describes the relevance of international human rights law to immigration detention.

The body of the paper is then split into six main sections, which discuss: (1) conditions faced by immigrant detainees in Texas and the international human rights obligations implicated by those conditions, (2) immigration detention standards and oversight, (3) access to counsel and adjudication in Texas, (4) the causes and consequences of over-detention, (5) the policy choice to detain immigrants and alternatives to detention, and (6) recommendations to bring U.S. immigration detention practices into compliance with international human rights law. While the report focuses on how federal immigration detention practices play out in Texas, many of the findings and recommendations are applicable throughout the United States.