© 2024 Wyoming Public Media
800-729-5897 | 307-766-4240
Wyoming Public Media is a service of the University of Wyoming
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Transmission & Streaming Disruptions
A regional collaboration of public media stations that serve the Rocky Mountain States of Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.

U.S. Says Asylum-Seekers Must Be Detained Despite Criticism That Detention Centers Are Overtaxed

Creative Commons Zero - CC0
/
pxhere

U.S. Attorney General William Barr announced recently that all asylum-seekers must be detained or deported. Immigrant advocates say this will put more pressure on detention centers that are already failing to meet the needs of detainees.

Asylum seekers used to qualify for bond release if they passed a credible fear test. Now, they will have to await resolution of their case from behind bars.

Andrew Arthur, former immigration judge and a fellow with the conservative-leaning Center for Immigration Studies, said Barr’s decision is not new, but is based on the Immigration and Nationality Act.

“It's not a good idea or a bad idea,” said Arthur. “It's the law. And it's appropriate for the Attorney General to apply the law as Congress has written it.”

But Mateo Lozano with the Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition sees a problem. He said immigration detention centers, like the Aurora Detention Center in Colorado, are already operating in substandard conditions.

“The Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition is getting lots of complaints of outbreaks of certain viruses happening in the jails,” said Lozano, “of people suffering from lack of nutrition, of some people not getting the adequate medical care.”

According to the immigrant advocacy group National Immigration Forum, it can cost as much as $200 a day to detain someone in an immigration detention facility.

This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado.

Copyright 2021 KRCC. To see more, visit KRCC.

Ali Budner is KRCC's reporter for the Mountain West News Bureau, a journalism collaborative that unites six stations across the Mountain West, including stations in Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana to better serve the people of the region. The project focuses its reporting on topic areas including issues of land and water, growth, politics, and Western culture and heritage.
Related Content