New Civil Immigration Enforcement Guidelines from the Biden government took effect in November this year, and several immigrants detained in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention facilities have filed for immediate release.

Enacted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), these new guidelines, according to the “Latino Rebels” publication, represent “a victory in the hard-won battle around anti-criminalization”, which concerns the principle that “no criminal conviction necessarily makes someone a priority for deportation”.

The DHS often targeted the imprisonment of undocumented immigrants who have already served time for crimes and without a clear prediction of release, a practice that, in times of pandemic, proved to be highly deadly.

As reported by The Washington Post, at the Bergen County Detention Center in Hackensack, NJ – where the federal Immigration and Customs Department held detained immigrants facing deportation under strong protests from activist groups – rather than release, detainees were relocated: “agents transferred dozens of immigrants from New Jersey to other facilities, often run by private companies, in states such as Louisiana, Georgia, and New York”

During the presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to put an end to the large network of private detention in the country where the majority of the immigrant population that is facing deportation process is concentrated. In the opposite direction, however, other detention centers across the country reopened or had their contracts renewed by the US authorities.

Also, according to The Washington Post, Moshannon Valley Correctional Facility, a former federal prison owned by Geo Group, just reopened in Pennsylvania as a 1,994-bed detention facility, the largest in the Northeast. The 600-bed West Tennessee Detention Facility, a former prison owned by CoreCivic, may also hold immigrants. Other Geo Group detention centers in Florida, Colorado, and Texas renewed their lease, and in Pennsylvania, Berks County, a women's detention center opened, “a county-owned facility that used to house migrant families. ICE also extended its contract with the last detention center in New Jersey, CoreCivic-run Elizabeth Detention Center, company and state court records show”.

Importantly, before Joe Biden took over as president in January this year, the number of immigrants detained rose from approximately 15,000 to 29,000. There is still great concern about the excesses of detention and the abusive treatment by which these people are subjected, in both the public and private detention system. There are reports of “physical abuse, inadequate medical care and retaliation for reporting abuse”.

“Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas earlier this year expressed concern about the ‘overuse’ of detention. He closed two detention facilities investigated for abuses and turned family detention centers into short-term reception facilities — and a spokeswoman signaled that more is coming”.

As groups of protesters against these initiatives continue to be active across the country, “Biden administration says it is trying to grant citizenship or some form of legal status to most of the 11 million immigrants here illegally”.