The UN Special Rapporteur for the Rights of Migrants, Jorge Bustamante, conducted an official tour of the USA in April and May of 2007. A report on that visit was released to the Human Rights Council on March 7, 2008. Below are sample findings from the report and a directory to sections of the report as archived here at the Texas Civil Rights Review.–gm
118. Children should be removed from jail-like detention centres and placed in home-like facilities. Due care should be given to rights delineated for children in custody in the American Bar Association “Standards for the Custody, Placement, and Care; Legal Representation; and Adjudication of Unaccompanied Alien Children in the United States.”
121. Whenever possible, migrant women who are suffering the effects of persecution or abuse, or who are pregnant or nursing infants, should not be detained. If these vulnerable women cannot be released from ICE custody, the Department of Homeland Security should develop alternative programmes such as intense supervision or electronic monitoring, typically via ankle bracelets. These alternatives have proven effective during pilot programmes. They are not only more humane for migrants who are particularly vulnerable in the detention setting or who have family members who require their presence, but they also cost, on average, less than half the price of detention.
Sections of the Bustamante Report archived at the Texas Civil Rights Review
Summary: Banned from Hutto without Satisfactory Explanation.
I.A.: Rights to Fair Deportation Hearings Violated
I.B.: USA ‘Long Way Out of Step’ with Rights to Liberty
II.A. & II.B.: The Spriri of 1996 and Mandatory Deportations
II.C.: Forty Local and State Agencies Recruited for Immigration Enforcement
II.D. & II.E.: A System of Morning Raids and Mandatory Detentions
III.A. & III.B.: Rebuilding New Orleans upon Migrant Labor Abuses
IV. & V.: Punitive, Inconsiderate, and Expensive Policies Should be Reversed
We have also converted the report of UN Special Rapporteur Jorge Bustamante to pdf format. (Get it here: 250kb).
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