Earlier this month, Representatives Pramila Jayapal (WA-07) and Adam Smith (WA-09) introduced the Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act, a bill that seeks to enact guardrails and oversight on immigration detention and ensure civil and human rights are protected.
Disability Law United (DLU) chose to endorse this bill because it directly addresses many of the issues we see regarding disability rights and access within the immigration detention context. The U.S. immigration detention system is the largest detention system in the world, and whether a facility is run by Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE), a local government, or a private contractor, these detention centers are littered with systemic abuses and medical neglect that disproportionately harm detained immigrants with disabilities.
Under existing disability law, immigration detention centers must ensure that people with disabilities do not face discrimination while in custody. However, existing laws and policies intended to provide protection and accommodations to detained individuals with disabilities —such as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act—are either poorly enforced or blatantly violated in the context of immigration detention.
In May of this year, DLU and co-counsel from Disability Rights Legal Center (DRLC) filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of California on behalf of a Deaf, non-verbal asylum seeker from Mongolia, whose rights to reasonable accommodations and effective communication for his disabilities were repeatedly violated by Customs & Border Patrol (CBP), ICE, and Immigration Court. Despite repeated attempts by his legal team to secure accommodations in detention, DHS failed to provide a qualified Mongolian Sign Language (MSL) interpreter, relying instead on tools like Google Translate (which can be riddled with errors) to conduct critical interviews. This disregard for Mr. Avirmed’s rights under federal law resulted in dangerous and absurd miscommunications, including misidentifying his sister as his daughter, and left him with no way to effectively communicate with immigration officials about his asylum claim or his medical and mental condition.
Mr. Avirmed’s struggles are not unique. While DLU and DRLC were able to secure a victory for Mr. Avirmed—Judge Sabraw issued a preliminary injunction ensuring he will have access to effective communication and reasonable accommodations— we know that stronger laws and enforcement are needed to better protect and ensure accountability for detained immigrants with disabilities.
The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act does just that, with several notable provisions to protect people with disabilities. The complete prohibition on solitary confinement is especially vital, as people with physical and mental disabilities are disproportionately placed in solitary confinement. While these placements are often considered “medical” or “administrative” segregation, often for the professed purpose of protecting an individual with a disability, these placements are functionally the same as placing someone in disciplinary segregation (solitary confinement). The individual is isolated and confined to a cell for 23 hours a day, with severely limited access to programs they are entitled to, such as recreation time or access to counsel.
This bill also creates a special rule for vulnerable persons (which includes individuals with serious mental or physical illness or disability), mandating that they may not be detained unless the government can meet its burden to show why an individual must be detained for concerns over appearance at future proceedings, or because they pose a threat. Immigration detention and the immigration process are already extremely difficult to navigate, but the system becomes much more difficult to navigate for an individual with a disability who may face additional barriers to communication with legal representatives and family members, as well as physical access barriers preventing them from ambulating safely around the detention center, or deteriorating health due to poor medical care. Prohibiting their detention in the first place is the best mechanism for ensuring that individuals with disabilities are not further harmed due to a facility’s inability or unwillingness to address necessary accommodations.
The policies and standards that currently exist for all immigrants in detention are sub-regulatory, and therefore quite difficult to enforce, even when they are meant to ensure compliance with a federal law such as the Rehabilitation Act. To increase enforcement and ensure that violated rights can be vindicated, this bill creates a private right of action for individuals who have experienced injury as a result of a violation of detention standards. The complex and bureaucratic government contracting system that governs the U.S. immigration detention system, and the lack of explicit accountability for harms resulting from the civil rights violations make it extremely difficult to protect and individual while in detention. This provision is particularly beneficial for individuals with disabilities experiencing greater harm at the hands of government personnel or private contractors running the detention centers, and are provided a direct remedy under the proposed law.
The Dignity for Detained Immigrants Act will provide greatly-needed protections for any individual experiencing immigration detention, particularly in light of the recent, rapid expansion of detention, where inhumane conditions are rampant. But this bill is particularly important for individuals with disabilities, who experience disproportionate levels of harm and violations of their rights within the immigration detention system.
Disability Law United is proud to support this bill.