Immigration detention facilities often violate civil and constitutional rights of detainees, sometimes failing to meet even the most basic standards of treatment, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said Thursday in a new 499-page report.
The independent bipartisan commission of four presidential appointees and four congressional appointees said conditions in detention facilities, some run by the government and some privately contracted, are often far worse than the conditions illegal immigrants faced in their home countries, reported The Washington Examiner.
Many detention facilities lack adequate medical care, deny immigrants access to lawyers to help with their cases, and sometimes turn a blind eye to rape and sexual abuse, the report said.
Further, Muslims aren't given enough leeway to celebrate Ramadan and transgender detainees are mistreated, according to the Washington Times. The commission said that holding whole families in detention is a particularly egregious abuse of human rights.
The report also charged that food is served with maggots, an AIDS victim was ignored and died of her illness and some children are sexually abused.
Due to the severity of the abuses found, the commission said Congress should stop funding detention centers and the administration should immediately release all detained families.
"From calling immigrants 'illegal aliens' and 'invading hordes,' to the most recent rantings of presidential candidates spewing anti-immigrant, anti-Latino and anti-Mexican vitriol, we have witnessed the creation of an environment which condones the inhumane treatment of immigrants, especially those coming from Latin America," commission Chairman Martin R. Castro wrote, accusing Homeland Security of "subjecting detained immigrants to torture-like conditions."
The report was approved by a 5-2 vote, with all four Democrats and an independent voting in favor, and a Republican and independent voting against. The eighth commissioner recused herself, according to the Huffington Post.
Before the report was released, two of the commissioners said the agency couldn't prove its claims and accused the liberal commission members of pushing a pro-immigrant and pro-union agenda, according to the Examiner.
"The chairman's statement suggests that the treatment of detainees is comparable to torture. Lots of ugly rumors are uncritically repeated - like the presence of maggots in the food served by detention center kitchens, sexual assaults, deaths, etc.," said dissenting commissioner Gail Heriot, a law professor at the University of San Diego. "Some of the rumors were investigated by DHS and others and found to be untrue or very unlikely, but the commission's report doesn't bother to mention those investigations. In no case did the commission undertake an investigation to determine the truth or falsity of a rumor it reported."
She added: "It is said that where there is smoke, there is fire. But sometimes where there is smoke, there is only a smoke-making machine, busily stoked by publicists working for activist organizations."
Homeland Security spokeswoman Marsha Catron said the department is reviewing the report, but defended how they handle immigrants in their custody.
