Student 1

Sally Student

Ms. Voyles

English 102

19 March 2021

Should Immigrants in Detention Centers Have Constitutional Rights? - Outline

Thesis Statement: All immigrants deserve the rights listed and described in the United States

Constitution. Current immigrant detention centers conditions such as the

use of solitary confinement, the lack of access to fair and speedy trials,

and the problems regarding family separation and conditions for children

are violating those rights.

I. Some say that the bad conditions in immigrant detention centers are over exaggerated and

that detention centers are the only effective way to stop the problem of illegal

immigration.

A. The article "Immigrant Detention: Are immigrant detention centers fair and

effective?" which was published on Issues & Controversies, an infobase that

provides accurate and weekly updated information on current happenings,

explains that “there are limits to how lenient the government can be in processing

immigrants.”

1. The government cannot simply allow everyone who tries to enter the

country in.

2. This would cause danger for current United States citizens as well as other

immigrants who wish to enter a safe country.

 Student 2

B. Previous policies that have been in place in the United States have not been

effective, and therefore the country needs to encourage placing illegal immigrants

in detention centers ("Immigrant Detention: Are immigrant detention centers fair

and effective?").

II. Conditions in detention centers are consistently getting worse. The use of solitary

confinement and other torturous methods in immigrant detention centers is unethical and

ineffective and needs to be stopped immediately.

A. Erika Voreh, who studies alien detention centers and solitary confinement, defines

immigrant detention as “the practice of incarcerating immigrants while they await

a determination of their immigration status or potential deportation” (289).

1. She defines solitary confinement as “the physical isolation of individuals

who are confined to their cells for twenty-two to twenty-four hours a day”

(291).

2. Voreh strongly argues against solitary confinement in immigrant detention

centers. She argues that solitary confinement is not an effective or ethical

form of treatment for anyone.

B. There have been many reports in detention centers regarding mistreatment of the

detainees by the guards. Not only do guards enforce solitary confinement for days

at a time, but in 2004, detention centers in New Jersey had reports of guards

“beating handcuffed detainees” and “terrorizing detainees with dogs” ("Immigrant

Detention: Are immigrant detention centers fair and effective?").

 Student 3

C. A Justice Department inspector general filed reports of guards “kicking detainees,

twisting their fingers and wrists, and slamming them into walls” ("Immigrant

Detention: Are immigrant detention centers fair and effective?").

III. Immigrants being held in detention centers deserve the Constitutional right of a fair and

speedy trial and a lawyer to defend them.

A. According to the Harvard Law Review, which has been publishing reports

monthly since 1887 with the purpose of creating a journal of legal scholarship,

there are many steps to being granted and allowed and fair trial.

1. “Between lack of financial resources and scarce ability to locate a lawyer,

only 14% of detainees ultimately have counsel for their defense against

removal proceedings” (“The Right to Be Heard from Immigration Prisons:

Locating a Right of Access to Counsel for Immigration Detainees in the

Right of Access to Courts.”).

2. “Many detention centers are in extremely remote locations, forcing

attorneys to travel for many hours to meet with their clients. Once

attorneys arrive, they often wait for hours for a visitation room to become

available (“The Right to Be Heard from Immigration Prisons: Locating a

Right of Access to Counsel for Immigration Detainees in the Right of

Access to Courts.”).

B. According to the Legal Information Institute at Cornell Law School, immigrants

have the right to a “public trial without unnecessary delay, the right to a lawyer,

[and] the right to an impartial jury under the sixth amendment.

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1. The difficulties that immigrants face while trying to be granted a trial, find

a lawyer, meet with that lawyer, and proceed with a fair, unbiased trial are

not ethical.

2. Anyone in the United States is protected under the Constitution and should

be granted those rights.

IV. For many years, immigrant families have entered the United States and been separated

from one another. This problem has continued in the detention centers.

A. Today in the United States, families are separated from one another and forced to

remain in crowded detention centers. This is not a solution to the problem of

illegal immigration. It is unethical and it needs to be stopped.

1. Jamie R. Abrams, a writer for the Harvard Law & Policy Review, argues

that it is the duty of the Supreme Court to protect immigrant families. In

her article “Why the Legal Strategy of Exploiting Immigrant Families

Should Worry Us All,” she writes that immigrant families are “entitled to

these family law constitutional guarantees” no matter if they are legal

immigrants or illegal immigrants (Abrams 87).

2. Abrams also argues that “parents hold a fundamental constitutional right

to the care, custody, and control of their children” (85).

B. Children should not be detained in immigrant detention centers because of the

numerous reports of harsh conditions.

1. Abrams writes that many reports have “emerged of children being forced

to take psychotropic drugs in immigration detention” (84).

 Student 5

Works Cited

Abrams, Jamie R. “Why the Legal Strategy of Exploiting Immigrant Families Should Worry Us

All.” Harvard Law & Policy Review, vol. 14, no. 1, Jan. 2020, pp. 77–129. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofs&AN=143428431&site=ehost-live.

"Immigrant Detention: Are immigrant detention centers fair and effective?" Issues &

Controversies, Infobase, 23 Feb. 2007,

icof.infobaselearning.com/recordurl.aspx?ID=2557.

“Sixth Amendment.” Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School,

www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/sixth_amendment.

“The Right to Be Heard from Immigration Prisons: Locating a Right of Access to Counsel for

Immigration Detainees in the Right of Access to Courts.” Harvard Law Review, 10 Dec.

2018,

harvardlawreview.org/2018/12/the-right-to-be-heard-from-immigration-prisons-locating-

a-right-of-access-to-counsel-for-immigration-detainees-in-the-right-of-access-to-courts/.

Voreh, Erika. “The United States’ Convention against Torture Ruds: Allowing the Use of

Solitary Confinement in Lieu of Mental Health Treatment in U.S. Immigration Detention

Centers.” Emory International Law Review, vol. 33, no. 2, Jan. 2019, pp. 287–310.

EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofs&AN=136273688&site=ehost-live.