15 Mar 2021
Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) is leading a group of Democrat lawmakers asking the Biden administration to prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from contracting with state and local prisons or jails, citing poor conditions and for-profit motives.
In a March 15 letter addressed to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, the Democrat lawmakers praised the Biden administration for its January 26 executive order to phase out the use of private detention facilities but called for further action.
“We support the calls from more than 70 Congressional offices to expand this Executive Order to incorporate privately operated immigration detention facilities under Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” they wrote adding privately operated facilities “are not the only instance in which financial incentives fuel needless expansion of immigration detention.”
Newsroom Navigation Central American migrants crossing the Suchiate River between the Guatemalan and Mexican border. Photo: Oliver de Ros
Biden Administration Hesitant on Message for Migrants
The administration is struggling to communicate a promising message to migrants while also urging them to not cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Joe Biden’s coordinator for the southern border, Ambassador Roberta Jacobson, recognized the administration is struggling to communicate a promising message to migrants while also urging them to not cross the U.S.-Mexico border until the immigration system is set in stone. “I think, when you look at the issue of mixed messages, it is difficult at times to convey both hope in the future and the danger that is now. And that is what we’re trying to do,” Jacobson said as the number of migrants grew at the border this past week. Smugglers, on the other hand, are spreading the word that the border is ready for a huge flow of migrants.
Biden to end Trump-era agreement between ICE and agency housing migrant children yahoo.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from yahoo.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.