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Minnesota nonprofits raise alarm about feds' interest in more immigration detention beds

Thursday, October 26, 2017

Minnesota nonprofits raise alarm about feds' interest in more immigration detention beds

 

"Several Twin Cities nonprofits that serve immigrants are raising concerns about a federal plan to add between 200 and 600 detention beds in Minnesota and nearby states.

The nonprofits, which offer free legal services, wrote to Immigration and Customs Enforcement this week arguing that a further ramping up of immigration detention in the region would imperil due process for immigrants, in part because free service providers are already swamped with cases. ICE posted a notice inquiring about the availability of extra beds for its St. Paul, Chicago, Detroit and Salt Lake City offices.

A recent Star Tribune analysis showed a marked increase in immigration detentions at five Minnesota county jails that contract with ICE, leading some of them to send local inmates to other counties or increase the number of inmates jailed two to a cell. Immigration arrests out of ICE’s St. Paul office, which also covers the Dakotas, Nebraska and Iowa, were up 78 percent through June of this year compared with the same period in 2016, based on ICE data..."

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