ACLU asks new acting ICE chief to close detention centers, stop local police from arresting illegal immigrants

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is urging the new acting chief of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to limit arrests of illegal immigrants made by local law enforcement and close detention centers.

The Biden administration’s ICE named Patrick “P.J.” Lechleitner as the new acting chief of the agency at the end of June. The ACLU wrote Thursday that Lechleitner should close ICE detention centers and stop an agency program that allows local law enforcement agencies to make immigration-related arrests.

“Acting Director Lechleitner must not let the ugly politics of immigration stop him from taking swift and meaningful action on detention and enforcement,” the ACLU wrote, while also asking the acting ICE director to stop public raids.

With new leadership at ICE, it’s time for the Biden administration to:
▪️ Shut down ICE detention sites.
▪️ Roll back the 287(g) program empowering abusive sheriffs.
▪️ Restrict ICE’s harmful street enforcement tactics.https://t.co/x23SVNrXon

— ACLU (@ACLU) July 6, 2023

While a record number of more than 2.3 million migrants entered via the southern border in fiscal year 2022, ICE removed roughly 72,000 illegal aliens, compared to roughly 185,000 in fiscal year 2020 when migrant encounters were less.

“During his campaign, then-candidate Biden promised to ‘end for-profit detention centers.’ In April 2021, he told activists in Georgia that ‘there should be no private prisons, period, none, period. … Private detention centers: they should not exist, and we are working to close all of them.’ A poll we commissioned supported Biden’s convictions: 68 percent of voters wanted to see the federal government stop pursuing contracts with for-profit prison corporations,” the ACLU wrote.

“Though Biden’s pledge only focused on for-profit detention, activists and the ACLU have called on him to dismantle the mass detention system more broadly. So far, ICE has closed or discontinued use of a handful of facilities, but far more is needed. ICE’s new acting director should order a new, comprehensive review of ICE detention facilities for health, safety and due process issues — and swiftly act to close abusive facilities,” the ACLU continued.

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