Opinion: How Congress can stand up for asylum-seekers dignity CNN 2 hrs ago Opinion by Pramila Jayapal and Joanne Lin © Christian Chavez/AP A member of the International Organization for Migration takes a child s temperature before crossing the border into El Paso, Texas at the Leona Vicario shelter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, Friday, Feb. 26, 2021.
Former President Donald Trump spent four years inflicting untold damage to the rights of immigrants, including people seeking safety in this country. As asylum seekers came to the United States to flee violence and persecution, the Trump administration detained upwards of 50,000 people (a figure Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed), prolonged the detention of families and exercised authority over a system that saw an uptick in deaths in detention which the House Oversight Committee determined was often due to inadequate medical care.
ICE detentions plunge under Biden, leaving thousands of empty beds
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Biden s Border Policies Leave Empty Detention Beds, Costing Taxpayers
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The U.S. Department of Homeland Security Northwest Detention Center is pictured in Tacoma, Wash., in 2017. It s now called the Northwest ICE Processing Center.
The sprawling detention center in Tacoma, Wash., housed more than 1,300 immigrants on average at the height of former President Donald Trump s immigration crackdown. Now nearly four out of every five beds at the facility are empty.
That s because Immigration and Customs Enforcement released hundreds of people to lower the risk of COVID-19, and because the agency is arresting and detaining fewer unauthorized immigrants under orders from President Biden.
But that doesn t translate into savings for the U.S. government or the American taxpayer. In fact, because of the way ICE structures its contracts with private companies and localities that own and operate the detention centers, the agency guarantees it will pay for a minimum number of beds whether they are filled or not.