Immigrants drive Nebraska's economy. Trump's mass deportations pledge is a threat

[Cirsium]

40. Yes, they already have been

It is shocking to me how many people are still ignorant about the ongoing war against immigrants. Round ups, mass arrests and indefinite detention in privatized hell holes have already been happening on a large sale, and much of it has been in "red" areas.

"The U.S. government spends over three billion a year on the largest immigration detention apparatus in the world to detain and deport people who have lived in the U.S. for decades or who arrived recently seeking safety or a better life. People in detention experience inhumane conditions and rights abuses that include medical neglect, preventable deaths, punitive use of solitary confinement, lack of due process, obstructed access to legal counsel, and discriminatory and racist treatment. The numbers behind the immigration detention system provide a glimpse of the depths of inhumanity experienced on a daily basis by those in detention and the significant public costs, as more taxpayer dollars go towards private prison companies profiting each year off detention contracts. The numbers reiterate the urgent need to halt efforts to expand the system and phase out the use of immigration detention."

"There has been a 50% increase since March 2023 in ICE’s use of solitary confinement for people considered members of “vulnerable and special populations.” The average number of consecutive and cumulative days in solitary has more than doubled for this population, which ICE classifies as people who self-identify as LGBTI, have a serious mental or medical illness, are on a hunger strike, or are on suicide watch. In solitary confinement, which ICE refers to as “segregation,” people are isolated in small cells with minimal human contact for days, weeks, or years. The practice has a devastating psychological and physical impact, as The New York Times recently reported."

60% of the people in ICE custody are subject to “mandatory detention,” meaning they do not have a right to a bond hearing to make a case for release, which is basic due process. 90% of people in ICE custody are held in detention centers operated for profit by private companies as of July 2023. This is a 10 percent increase from the Trump administration. ICE’s oversight system permits abuse and stifles accountability, allowing for lucrative contracts to continue with impunity.

37,000 people are detained each day on average, an alarming 140% increase from the start of the Biden administration. ICE detained more than 260,000 people over the last year alone. This includes people who have lived in the U.S. for decades, parents of U.S. citizens, parents separated from their children, and people who arrived recently seeking asylum or a better life. People increasingly protest the abuses they face in detention. As of June 2024, hundreds of people in at least five different facilities were on hunger strikes. ICE often responds to protests with threats and physical force, using pepper spray, non-lethal bullets, and sending protesters to solitary confinement.

- from the The National Immigrant Justice Center
https://immigrantjustice.org/

Excerpts from the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service report focused on one of the detention centers:

• Hutto is a former criminal facility that still looks and feels like a prison, complete with razor wire and prison cells.

• Some families with young children have been detained in these facilities for up to two years.

• The majority of children detained in these facilities appeared to be under the age of 12.

• At night, children as young as six were separated from their parents.

• People in detention displayed widespread and obvious psychological trauma. Every woman we spoke with in a private setting cried.

• At Hutto pregnant women received inadequate prenatal care.

• Children detained at Hutto received one hour of schooling per day.

• Families at Hutto received no more than twenty minutes to go through the cafeteria line and feed their children and themselves.

• Children were frequently sick from the food and losing weight.

That is just a glimpse into what was going on from over ten years ago. It has gotten steadily worse under both Democratic and Republican administrations.