AMERICA/UNITED STATES - The Bishops denounce: the immigration system has become an "inhuman industry"

Washington (Agenzia Fides) - The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has denounced through a recently published report that the system of detention centers for immigrants in the US has become an "inhuman industry", and has called for urgent reforms. From 1994 to 2013, the average daily detained population rose from 6,785 to 34,260. The number of persons detained annually increased from roughly 85,000 persons in 1995 to 440,557 in 2013.
"It is time for our nation to reform this inhuman system, which detains people unnecessarily, particularly vulnerable people who are not a threat", said the Auxiliary Bishop of Seattle, His Exc. Mgr. Eusebio Elizondo, who is president of the Episcopal Commission for Migration.
The USCCB study shows that the growth of detention centers has provoked a system that creates "mismatches, broken families, human rights violations, abandoned legal petitions and less national prestige". "In many respects, immigrant detainees are not treated in the same way as other criminal defendants", concludes the report entitled "Unlocking Human Dignity: A Plan to Transform the US Immigrant Detention System".
According to the rules of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), immigrant detainees are not released even when there is the opportunity to put them under close surveillance, the report said. (CE) (Agenzia Fides 12/05/2015)