Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Detention Is No Holiday

By Edwidge Danticat, New York Times Op Ed
March 27, 2012

LAMAR SMITH, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, is presiding over a hearing Wednesday on new guidelines for immigration detention that were issued last month and are now beginning to go into effect. The official (and facetious) title of the hearing is “Holiday on ICE,” in reference to the more humane treatment undocumented immigrants should now receive after being picked up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Mr. Smith, a Republican from Texas, and members of the House Subcommittee on Immigration Policy and Enforcement, which is holding the hearing, seem to think the United States is too nice to the immigrants it detains. We are being too generous in deciding to give them safe water, an hour a day of recreation, and off-site medical care if they are in danger of dying. [...]

Read the full article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/28/opinion/detention-is-no-holiday.html

For Danticat's memoir on her uncle Joseph, who died in immigration detention:
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/36739/brother-im-dying-by-edwidge-danticat

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