Detention Centers Having Undocumented Immigrants Work ‘Voluntarily’
[su_publirb]
Unauthorized immigrants are making $1-$3 an hour at detention centers.
They clean, cook, launder, landscape and perform other jobs.
“It’s ironic — it’s illegal for them to work, but they’re working for the immigration service in a sense,” said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative think tank in Washington.
“It can be a useful element of managing people in detention,” Krikorian added. “I don’t have any problem with it in principle. The question is: Is it run well?”
Government contracts not only condone detainees working, they bank on it, experts said, exploiting a legal loophole that has prompted class-action lawsuits by immigrants and advocates.
“We have a name for locking people up and forcing them to do real work without wages. It’s called slavery,” said Carl Takei, a staff attorney with the ACLU National Prison Project who recently visited the family detention center in Dilley, Texas.
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