Immigrants held in detention are increasingly being sent to state and federal prisons, including many with troubling human rights records. This new practice has already led to abuses, as the unclear legal authority dictating the status of ICE detainees held in prisons means that they are often unable to contact their attorneys or families. 

Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights staff attorney Sarah Decker said, “I do think that the optics of housing people in civil detention in a prison is demonstrating what we already know to be true, which is that immigration detention is punitive and is punishment.”

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