Think Outside the Cell: Are Binding Detention Standards the Most Effective Strategy to Prevent Abuses of Detained Illegal Aliens?

In the last twenty years the U.S. government has increasingly utilized detention to control illegal immigration. This practice has become controversial because it has caused numerous in-custody abuses and deaths of immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees and even citizens. Immigrant rights advocates have called for the passage of binding detention standards to prevent in-custody abuses. This thesis’s policy analysis reveals, however, that while they may finesse the practice of immigration detention, such binding standards would be ineffective in protecting immigrants ’ rights. Instead this policy analysis calls for and explains the feasibility of discontinuing the practice of mass immigrant detention. ii “We are a nation of laws, and we must enforce our laws. We’re also a nation of immigrants, and we must uphold that tradition…