Why does the federal government continue to seek contracts with Hudson County, which is mired in systemic human rights abuses and have continually rejected and resisted reform?
By Angie Junck and Chia-Chia Wang
Two months ago, Jose Molina was relaxing at his home in Harris County, Texas after work, playing music and drinking beer with a friend.
He stepped out to move his truck into his apartment complex so it wouldn't be towed overnight, and was pulled over by Pasadena Police, a department that has had a reputation of engaging in racial profiling.
Arrested for driving under the influence, the widowed father of three was immediately sucked into the dragnet of 287(g), a federal program designed to have local police act as deportation agents, after being booked at the Harris County jail.
Because of this collaboration, Molina, a resident of the U.S. for nearly three decades, was turned over to immigration authorities and now currently sits in a detention center in Conroe, Texas on the brink of deportation.
He is unable to care for his three U.S. citizen children, one of whom is disabled and suffers from severe autism and seizures. His son Alexis, who is just 21 years old, has been forced to quit his job and step in as caretaker for his siblings, including his old brother with autism.
If deported, it is likely that Jose Molina will never see his children again. Jose Molina is one of thousands of casualties of the deportation dragnet resulting from local law enforcement collaboration with immigration authorities.
Here in New Jersey, Hudson and Monmouth counties are both currently under 287(g) agreements, and ICE is courting seven new jurisdictions to join the program, including Salem County. On July 14, Hudson County, renewed its 287(g) agreement with the federal government for another three years.
Hudson uses three deputized officers to run the program. Including their salaries, any other additional personnel time involved and other relevant administrative costs, it's fair to say the county dedicates at least tens -- if not hundreds -- of thousands of dollars to the program.
Why does the federal government continue to seek contracts with localities like Hudson County and Harris County, which are mired in their own systemic human rights abuses and have continually rejected and resisted reform?
Hudson County boasts a population that is nearly 42 percent foreign-born and a county government that has been vocally supportive of pro-immigrant policies.
Yet, the Hudson County jail -- a participant in the 287(g) program -- has been named one of the three worst immigration detention sites amongst 53 monitored across the nation. In May, advocates filed a civil rights complaint surrounding substandard medical care in 61 cases at the hands of a for-profit healthcare provider contracted by the jail.
The jail's woes don't end there. In clear violation of due process rights, the jail has detained one elderly woman for over two years.
At a meeting with advocates, the County's Director of Corrections openly admitted to the County Executive that the jail did indeed send immigrants who had yet to be convicted to ICE for detention. Though county officials recently expressed their desire to end the 287(g) agreement, citing community opposition and concerns about the jail's operations, they've decided in favor of continuing to tear families apart, renewing the agreement anyway.
Across the country in Harris County, Texas, one in four Houstonians are foreign-born, and the city is known as one of the most ethnically diverse in the nation. The largest participant in the 287(g) program, the Harris County jail was investigated by the Department of Justice in 2009 for inadequate medical care, excessive use of force and overcrowding.
Five inmates have died under the tenure of the current sheriff after suffering from assaults or unexplained head trauma while in jail custody. Just last week, due to the use of faulty field testing kits in Harris County, a ProPublica investigation revealed "Blacks made up 59 percent of those wrongfully convicted in a city where they are 24 percent of the population."
In the meantime, Harris and Hudson counties continue to fill their jails and voluntarily carry out work of the federal government rather than fix these many abuses.
It's time for the Obama administration to scrap the 287(g) program for good. The costs of deportation are immeasurable and its effects reverberate across generations -- once someone has been ripped from their family, young children are left in foster care, elderly parents without caretakers, and spouses are forced into single parenthood.
In line with our values of richly diverse communities, just and fair policies, and human rights and dignity, we must end the mass deportation and criminalization of immigrants.
As we've witnessed the full and heartbreaking display of the biased policing across the country recently, we must also work to end the mass incarceration and predatory targeting of communities of color, many of which are heavily formed of immigrants. This intersection of racial profiling and immigration enforcement is particularly evident within the black, Middle Eastern, Latino and Afro-Latino immigrant communities, who remain to this day targeted for deportation at disproportionately higher rates.
All immigrants are worthy of equal protection under the law. It is imperative that state and local police stay out of the deportation business altogether.
Chia-Chia Wang is the organizing and advocacy director for the Immigrant Rights Program at the Newark-based American Friends Service Committee.
Angie Junck, J.D. is the supervising attorney at the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, where she focuses on the intersection between the immigration, criminal and juvenile justice systems.
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