In a heated letter on Friday, a few senators urged the US Department of Homeland Security to restructuring its system that places detained refugees in solitary confinement. They referred to the process as a” clear violation of international standards.”
The senators wrote that in recent years, solitary confinement has been on the rise in Immigration and Customs Enforcement ( ICE ) detention centers, saying the practice had increased by 61 % between 2022 and 2023, and that between 2018 and 2023, ICE officials ordered some 14, 000 periods in solitary.
The lawmakers wrote that the process involves leaving prisoners in cell without human contact for up to 22 hours per day, frequently for small transgressions like the use of vulgarity and, in some cases, as a means of treating mental health needs.
Under all circumstances, Rule 43 of the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners ( also known as solitary confinement for periods greater than 15 days ) is prohibited.
The enforcement of immigration laws within US borders is the responsibility of ICE. Its broad mandate covers identifying, detaining, and removing immigrants who are currently living in the country without authorization or who have broken immigration laws, as well as preventing human trafficking and smuggling and preventing terrorism through immigration pathways. ICE’s activities have drawn a lot of discussion and controversy, including over the children-in-u-s-detention-face-physical-mental-harms-report/”>detention and deportation of children. A recent report from Physicians for Human Rights criticized ICE for using solitary confinement, which it described as having a wide range of mental health effects, ranging from PTSD to increased suicide risk.
