Biden Administration Expands Immigration Detention

While activists may have celebrated the near-collapse of immigration detention in New Jersey when Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill in 2021 prohibiting new detention facilities statewide, the Washington Post reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has responded by simply transferring dozens of immigrants from New Jersey to other facilities, often run by private companies, in states such as Louisiana, Georgia, and New York. Biden had promised during his campaign to “end for-profit” detention, but has instead expanded immigration detention, sometimes in the same prisons he deemed too unsafe for criminals.

Approximately 15,000 immigrants were in detention when Biden took office, the lowest number in decades, but that number has since risen as high as 29,000. Detainees’ average length of stay is about 43 days, but some have been in detention for months or years. Meanwhile, the Biden administration has reached a deal with the Mexican government to restart the Trump-era “Remain in Mexico” program that requires asylum seekers to wait outside U.S. territory while their claims are processed. Officials in the United States are planning to initially use the MPP program primarily for single adult asylum seekers, who account for the majority of illegal border crossings, according to one official. Mexico is willing to accept asylum seekers from Spanish-speaking countries, as with the previous version of the program. The Biden administration is still formally preparing to end the program even as it brings it back under court order.