[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 144 (Wednesday, October 7, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H10528]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          ICE DETENTION REPORT

  (Mr. POLIS asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, yesterday Secretary Napolitano and 
Immigration and Customs Enforcement Assistant Secretary John Morton 
released a much-anticipated report on ICE's detention policies, which 
detailed observations and recommendations made by former detention 
policy and planning director, Dora Schriro.
  Despite ICE's previously stated goals of focusing on the detention 
and deportation of dangerous criminal immigrants, Dr. Schriro's report 
clearly states that two-thirds of the individuals being detained at 
taxpayer expense by ICE are noncriminal immigrants, a proportion which 
has stayed constant over the past 2 years.
  I am encouraged by Secretary Napolitano's commitment to reforming our 
Immigration Detention System and her acknowledgment that ICE must 
create a system that reflects the needs of a largely noncriminal 
civilian detainee population versus those of a prison population. We 
must ensure community members that those ICE has classified as 
``special population,'' such as parents with with minor children, the 
ill and injured, women, nonviolent asylum seekers, are not routinely 
detained. Those who are eligible and do not present a flight risk or a 
danger to their community should be able to pay a bond and seek parole.
  Luckily, ICE has found successful alternatives to detentions. 
Secretary Napolitano should continue these alternatives to detention 
programs.

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