As the fastest growing prison population, migrants in detention have
helped continue the decades long trend of rising imprisonment rates in
the united snakes in recent years, while saving the private prison
industry in the process.(1) Despite continued rhetoric about drugs
coming into the u.$. through Mexico, the government drastically shifted
resources away from drug enforcement to immigration enforcement
following 9/11, and the prison population shows it.(2)
As of July 2009, there are 31,000 non-citizens imprisoned at the federal
level on any given day in the u.$. This number is up from about 20,000
in 2006 and 6,259 in 1992.(3) There are more than 320,000 migrants
detained each year by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and as
many as a quarter of them are juveniles. These numbers include only
those imprisoned under federal custody, although they may be located all
around the country and in state prisons and local jails. These numbers
do not include people who may be imprisoned on criminal charges, but are
not turned in to federal custody on immigration violations (such as in
“sanctuary cities”).
The American Civil Liberties Union says that the conditions in which
these civil detainees are held are often as bad as or worse than those
faced by people imprisoned with criminal convictions. These detention
centers are described as “woefully unregulated.” The “requirements” that
they do have about how to treat people have no legal obligation,
reducing them essentially to suggestions.(3) This leads to prisoners
without u.$. citizenship being denied access to telephones, legal aide
or law libraries, recreation, visitation, mail, medical care,
toiletries, and the list goes on. People are kidnapped from their homes
in the middle of the night and transferred without notification to their
families. On top of that they often have no means of communication,
leading people to become completely detached from their support systems
and legal counsel. For u.$. prisoners, these conditions are nothing
surprising or new. The difference for migrants is that the line between
detention and punishment is blurred. Years ago, migrants were detained
for 4 or 5 days, and then deported. Now people are being detained for up
to 2 years (and possibly more), without ever being charged with a crime,
let alone convicted, even by an illegitimate jury in an illegitimate
u.$. court.
The Economic Motivations
One reason migrant imprisonment is increasing is because after the
prison boom of the 1990s, some prisons are sitting partially empty. The
owners and financers of these prisons are begging for more people to
lock up, and their solution is migrants. This is part of the parasitic
imperialist economy, where filling prisons is seen as an economic
stimulus even though it is a completely non-productive suck of
resources.
Private prisons house 17% of people in ICE custody. The Correctional
Corporation of America, a private prison management company who controls
half of the detention facilities run by private companies, spent $3
million lobbying politicians in 2004. They want stricter immigration
laws so they can have access to more prisoners, which will bring them
more money. In turn, ICE is able to pay 26% less per day to house
prisoners in a private versus state-run facility.(4) This is possible
because of the lack of public as well as governmental oversight at
private facilities, where they reduce costs by getting rid of everything
that would help prisoners, including necessary-to-life medical care. One
reason state governments shied away from private prisons for their own
citizens was the scandals that they quickly became associated with. In
the year 1998-99, Wackenhut’s private prisons in New Mexico had a death
rate 55 times that of the national average for prisons.(5) The migrant
population’s lack of voice allows these corporations to get away with
their cost-cutting abusive conditions when contracted by ICE. This is
another good example of how capitalism values profit over humyn life.
Yet, as we described in
Amerikkkans:
Oppressing for a Living, an increase in imprisonment doesn’t serve
the interests of just the private prison industry; CO and pig unions
also reap major benefits. Since 9/11/2001 the u.$. has increased its
border patrol from 8,000 agents to 20,000, 20% of whom are military
veterans. Salaries start at $36,000 to $46,000 per year plus full
benefits. The whole Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which
includes ICE, brags about its budget exceeding $40 billion and providing
high paying jobs for 166,234 amerikans.(6) Not only does DHS keep wealth
within u.$. borders, it helps distribute it as well.
And similar to the military-industrial complex and prison-industrial
complex we discussed in
The
privatization of war: Imperialism gasps its last breaths, Homeland
Security contracts are based on who you know, not what you’re selling,
as former staff members sell their wares to their old employers.(7)
Meanwhile, many of the smaller start-up companies that are cashing in
are headed by overly-enthusiastic and openly racist Minuteman types.(8)
Of course, there are real economic benefits to amerikans as a whole by
managing the populations trying to come into the u.$. If amerikans
really made more money because they are just smarter and harder working,
then they wouldn’t be afraid to open the borders and allow competition
for jobs. Instead, the demand for repression is forcing more and more
farmers to employ prison labor for harvests when they used to use
migrants. Free amerikan citizens just won’t work for proletarian wages,
not to mention it being illegal, so the argument that they want their
jobs back is pretty weak. Though perhaps this is the perfect solution to
keeping food cheap, while keeping foreigners out and the oppressed in
prison. Migrant detainees do work in private prisons doing the
day-to-day maintenance, and because they are not u.$. citizens DHS
enforces a maximum wage of $1 per day.(9) While adequate food and
housing are theoretically provided, this amounts to working and living
conditions generally below those in their home region. Opposite the
reactionary turn to border control, we challenge those who want jobs for
everyone to work toward a new economic system instead.
Close the Hatches: Whitey Unites
ICE is not the only law enforcement actor in this scam profiting off
humyn life. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act 287(g), local
authorities can become authorized to officially enforce federal
immigration law, while others are comfortable unofficially using the old
vigilante trick of targeting specific people. This culture of oppression
in the white nation runs so deep that an increasing number of u.$.
citizens are joining in the traditional amerikan hobby of border patrol,
volunteering with groups such as the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps. In
response to much public outrage, President Obama has addressed the
actions of the famous migrant humiliator Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio
by limiting him to only determining someone’s immigration status when
they’ve been jailed. This weak response of the Obama administration
shows their support of such migrant oppression.
The white euro-amerikan nation has been systematically oppressing other
peoples for centuries. One way is through exploitation and
neocolonialism in Third World countries, where people are trapped as
cheap labor by borders and immigration laws. Corporations pay little to
no wages there and sell products for super-profits in this country. The
dire economic situations cause people to leave their homes and often
risk their lives to provide for themselves and their families. From 1995
to 2005 about 2,600 people died trying to come into the united $tates
through Mexico.(10) Similarly, people regularly die crossing the ocean
in makeshift boats from Haiti where the u.$.-imposed government refuses
to meet the needs of the people. It’s oppressive in one country so
people decide to leave and come here thinking they will find better
opportunities. Of course, what really happens is the oppression and
exploitation of Third World people continues within the united $tates
when people don’t have a green card. Things are worse for the oppressed
during the recent economic crisis. Many from Latin America are finding
that opportunities are now superior back home, even though amerikans
continue to live over-consumptive lifestyles in the united $tates.
Signs of Progress
In the face of all this, there are people working toward solutions. In
Pecos, Texas in December 2008 and January 2009, there was a series of
migrant prisoner uprisings. They were finally set off by the death of a
man with epilepsy, who died completely unnecessarily due to a blatant
disregard for his life by refusing to give him medical care.(11) People
of many different nationalities came together in rebellion, demanding
better conditions. This is not the first or last murder of its kind, as
unexplained deaths are common in u.$. prisons, including migrant
detention centers.
Some u.$. cities are moving in the progressive direction of being
“sanctuaries.” Sanctuary cities allow people who may not be u.$.
citizens to make money here to send home to circulate in their own
countries. This is a roundabout way of moving toward a world without
borders. However, with accusations that some mayors are “soft on crime,”
the sanctuary status may be threatened. Additionally, there’s nothing
stopping federal agents from going into these cities and enforcing
federal immigration law, as they often do.
While we favor these progressive steps toward protections for migrants
in the u.$., we acknowledge that they aren’t enough to lead to the end
of national oppression. They are fragile reforms at best, that can be as
easily revoked (or simply ignored). Another solution some have is
integration of migrants into the u.$. exploiter nation through
exploiter-size wages. This is an effort to reduce their potential as
revolutionaries to that of consumers and labor-aristocratic parasites.
What we truly need to end national oppression of migrants in the u.$. is
to expose the “amerikkkan dream,” and revolutionize the workers to
support revolutionary movements in the Third World.
notes:
(1) Greene, Judith. Banking on the Prison Boom. August
2006.
(2) Fernandes, Deepa. Targeted: Homeland Security and the
Business of Immigration. Seven Stories Press, New York. 2007,
p.119.
(3) “Detention Management,” U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement, Nov 20, 2008,
http://www.ice.gov/pi/news/factsheets/detention_mgmt.htm
(4)
Berestein, Leslie. Tougher immigration laws turn the ailing private
prison sector into a revenue maker. San Diego Tribune, 5/4/2008.
(5)
Fernandes. p. 195.
(6)
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/rewrite/budget/fy2009/homeland.html
(7)
Fernandes, p.178.
(8) Ibid., p.185. Border Technologies, Inc. founder
believes that “Mexican culture is based on deceit” and “Chicanos and
Mexicanos lie as a means of survival.”
(9) Ibid., p.197.
(10)
Ibid., p.50.
(11) Wilder, Forrest. How a private prison pushed
immigrant inmates to the brink. The Texas Observer, October 2, 2009.
http://www.texasobserver.org/features/the-pecos-insurrection
