Editorial: Nicer jails for immigrants

Immigrants facing deportation might finally get a piece of the pie, though it is a very small… Immigrants facing deportation might finally get a piece of the pie, though it is a very small slice. The Department of Homeland Security wants to renovate old nursing homes and hotels into immigrant detention facilities.

Instead of housing immigrants in jails surrounded by razor wire, the government would shelter them in “detention centers” likely surrounded by barbed wire.

Currently, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement places immigrants in jails while they await processing, either for asylum or violation charges.

This gets expensive fast. It costs $2.4 billion annually to detain about 380,000 people per year, according to The New York Times. Putting non-violent immigrants, including children, in the clink poses hazards for both the prisoner and prison.

Over-crowding already bloats penitentiary costs while decreasing security. Relocating these immigrants to less threatening facilities makes them safer, and it allows prison guards to concentrate on more dangerous inmates.

Plus, it would save a lot of money.

Xenophobes and T.E.A. partygoers will surely protest the spending of taxpayer money on illegal immigrants — though not every detained immigrant is a border-hopper, as some are jailed for even minor infractions, like expired visas. Yet, government funds pay exorbitant rates to keep immigrants in jails and private prisons.

Placing them in the proposed centers would reduce the cost from about $100 per person per day to $14, according to The New York Times.

That just makes sense.

Also, merely renovating these hotels and homes improves infrastructure while creating a few jobs, however temporary. Construction workers will update residences, which will require at least some guards and administrators to maintain. Yes, this will increase the number of bureaucrats, but it will also simplify the transportation and detention of people who do not warrant prison cells.

For anyone who complains that these so-called criminals will be living the good life in a lower-security detention center, know that this ain’t the Ritz.

The Times documented a facility similar to those proposed by Homeland Security that will house 700 people and is encircled by barbed wire. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said that the government will continue detaining felons in jails.

The point is to remove non-violent people from potentially violent situations while saving some much-needed cash.

One concern does arise, however. In the attempt to conserve money, these facilities could become squalid de facto jails. After their creation, the centers will be easy political targets for fiscal hawks looking to cut budget appropriations.

If the federal government is serious about creating a “truly civil detention system,” as Assistant Secretary of Immigration and Customs Enforcement John Morton claims, it needs to commit to maintaining healthy, non-threatening quarters for immigrants.

Many detainees just want to live in the United States. They deserve a safe environment while the government tells them they can’t.