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What happens to immigrants after they're arrested?

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
In 2011 ICE conducted Operation Cross Check, an effort to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants with criminal records. More than 2,900 people were arrested and 18 weapons were confiscated.

  

On this edition of Your Call, we'll discuss immigration detention. Last week, ICE detained 150 people in Northern California. ICE says 800 more were spared after Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf warned the public of possible arrests. Attorney General Jeff Sessions was in Sacramento yesterday, announcing a lawsuit against California over several state immigration laws.

Every day, as many as 50,000 immigrants wake up in detention prisons across the country. According to NPR, 70 percent of immigrants are detained in for-profit private prisons. The Supreme Court recently ruled that immigrants can be detained indefinitely without a bond hearing. What are the conditions inside immigration prisons and how are immigrants treated?

Guests:

Francisco Ugarte, head of the San Francisco Public Defender’s immigration unit, which assigns public defenders to immigrants in deportation hearings

Rebecca Merton, visitation network coordinator and independent monitor for Community Initiatives for Visiting Immigrants in Confinement

Web Resources:

 

Vox: Jeff Sessions’s lawsuit against California’s “sanctuary” laws, explained

SF Chronicle: ICE said California arrests were ‘targeted,’ but observer alleges dragnet

KQED: What Happens to Immigrants Detained by ICE? A Cartoon Explainer

NPR: Big Money As Private Immigrant Jails Boom

The Atlantic: The American Detention Machine

San Jose Mercury News: Contra Costa sheriff bans ICE detainee advocacy group from visiting jail. Nonprofit calls it retaliation

 

Rose Aguilar has been the host of Your Call since 2006. She became a regular media roundtable guest in 2001. In 2019, the San Francisco Press Club named Your Call the best public affairs program. In 2017, The Nation named it the most valuable local radio show.