Trump Administration to Detain Immigrants in Federal Prisons

The Trump administration has utilized detention of immigrants as an immigration enforcement tool.  So, in certain respects, this report from Reuters is not surprising:  “U.S. authorities are transferring into federal prisons about 1,600 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees, officials told Reuters on Thursday, in the first large-scale use of federal prisons to hold detainees amid a Trump administration crackdown on people entering the country illegally.”  Keep in mind that immigrants in detention are not in custody as part of criminal punishment.  Rather, the detention is technically “civil” in nature and a means to enforce the immigration laws.

KJ