Studies often reveal little more than a "lack of funds" available for whatever, but we bumped into one this morning that knocked off our socks. A collaboration between the National Immigration Law Center, the ACLU of Southern California, and a large law firm resulted in this finding: "There is no question that the nation's immigration system is broken to its core," concludes the 170-page report, entitled The Broken System.
"The findings...reveal pervasive and extreme violations of the government's own detention standards as well as fundamental violations of basic human rights and notions of dignity."
In a case of deja vu for we Arizonans, the government's tepid response to the report came from the mouth of Dora Schriro, a special adviser to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. Schriro bleated that the study used outdated data, and that the feds are doing so much better these days in following detention and inspection standards.
Schriro, who ran the Arizona Department of Corrections during Napolitano's gubernatorial watch, coattailed it to D.C. with her patrona in the aftermath of Barack Obama's election. Schriro's five years at the helm of the DOC were not notable for any particular penal innovations, or for due diligence to the civil rights (such as they are) of prisoners.
For her to be chiming in on the adequacy of the report on ICE's "broken" detention facilities is humorous.
