Day 260: 300 Years of Detaining Migrants, on Substack
As of last Sunday, 39,111 people were detained — that is, held in jail — by immigration authorities.
I’ve been in a few immigration detention facilities. It’s exactly like going to a jail, because it is a jail, sometimes just another block of a facility that also houses people serving criminal sentences. You go into a cinderblock building and show your attorney credential to the guards (and argue with them when they refuse to admit clinical law students despite having undertaken all their required procedures).
Then you wait while your client is brought from their cell. When your name is called, you go through a series of secured entrances and metal detectors. Inside the halls of the prison, you see guards walking around with weapons. You sit in a small interview room, usually near the entrance, as the guards bring your client in. They wear orange jumpsuits.
Because of attorney-client privilege, you’re allowed to talk to your client without guards present. Clients always complain about their treatment: inadequate medical care, lack of access to communication with families and attorneys, harsh treatment by guards, uncontrolled bullying by other detainees.
After the interview, you step outside and tell the guards you’re finished, and they take the client back to their cell.
Trust me, immigration detention ain’t no “summer camp.” And it’s nothing new: In this post, I explore how Swiss authorities three hundred years ago tried to use immigration detention to prevent migration to North America. It didn’t work then, and it isn’t working now.
Maybe it’s time we looked for a smarter way to achieve the goals of public safety and sustainable immigration? This week in How We Got Here, on Substack.