Lanterna Rally

Author: Cushing N. Dolbeare

Publisher: Publications Department American CIVI Office

Published: 1990

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13:

This report examines the United States detention politics and their impact during the period prior to adoption of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA) of 1986. This historical summary of pre-IRCA detention policies was issued in anticipation of a General Accounting Office (GAO) study which was scheduled to be released by mid-1991. The report is divided into nine chapters. The first chapter gives a historical overview of US policies toward detention prior to 1981. It is stated that the unanticipated arrival of some 125,000 Cubans in 1980 through the Mariel boatlift led to the reintroduction of detention. Further, the study notes that the emergency response to Mariel in 1980 became Administration policy in 1981, and documents how the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) made the rule permanent. The second chapter describes who is detained and why. Mention is made of the Reagan Administration's rationale for detention and numerous tables provide information on the INS detention activities, including nationality of people detained in INS centres in certain periods and length of detention. Chapter Three focuses on particularly affected nationalities, specifically: Cubans, Haitians, Salvadorans and Mexicans. The fourth chapter examines the INS detention standards. The report analyses the general standards elaborated in an INS Operational Manual for Service Processing Centers, which formed the basis for the policies and procedures adopted by each centre. Chapter Five looks at the seven INS 'Service Processing Centers' or detention centres. General information is provided on life in a typical INS facility. The sixth chapter concerns 'non-service facilities', local jails, county jails or other places of incarceration to which people were frequently taken when they were first detained. Private facilities are mentioned, including the example of the Houston Center. Detention in federal prison facilities is discussed in Chapter Seven. The eighth chapter focuses on INS detention of minors, with tables showing characteristics of minors in detention and facilities used for detention of minor aliens as well as policies and facilities in those centres. The last chapter deals with access to legal representation, including appeals. An appendix to the report describes the detention facilities operated directly by the INS (excluding contract facilities).