U.S. isolates detained immigrants from majority-black countries at high rate, study finds

U.S. immigration authorities locked detainees from African and Caribbean countries in solitary confinement cells six times as often as the population at large, a new study finds.

By Spencer Woodman
Image: Rocco Fazzari / ICIJ
April 21, 2020

U.S. immigration authorities locked detainees from African and Caribbean countries in solitary confinement cells six times as often as the population at large, a new study finds.

Detainees from these predominantly black countries made up just 4% of detainees in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody from 2012 to 2017 — but 24% of all solitary confinement stays, the forthcoming report from researchers at the University of California concludes.

The disparity is due in part to ICE personnel using solitary confinement as a tool to discipline detainees from Africa and the Caribbean much more often than for people from other countries. The stark racial difference, the authors say, parallels the most painful inequities of America’s criminal justice system.

“The treatment of black immigrants in detention mirrors that of black individuals in jails and prisons,” said Keramet Reiter, an associate professor at University of California, Irvine, and a co-author of the study.

More:
https://www.icij.org/investigations/solitary-voices/u-s-isolates-detained-immigrants-from-majority-black-countries-at-high-rate-study-finds/