More about immigration detention

In today's column, I took a quick look at a report card issued by human rights groups today, taking the Obama administration to task for stalled progress on immigration detention reforms.

I only had room to talk about one grade, really -- the groups gave officials a "D" for their lack of follow-through in creating alternatives to detention for noncitizens who are no threat to national security or public safety.

The entire report covers five areas for reform that were laid out last year: including creating alternatives to detention, developing a civil detention system, ensuring that people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement have access to sound medical care, increasing transparency and oversight of the system and making these changes in a way that would actually save taxpayer money.

A year later, there's been some good news as well as bad, according to the report. ICE has formed advisory groups for feedback and advice about revising the system, for example. They've launched an online locator that makes it easier for attorneys, family members and others to locate detained noncitizens. Both those moves earned "A-" in the groups' report. But.

Here's the takeaway, from the groups' news release:

“One year after the administration announced its intention to improve the immigrant detention system, it remains broken,” said Mary Meg McCarthy, executive director, Heartland Alliance's National Immigrant Justice Center. “And while ICE leadership has expressed a commitment to improving conditions at these facilities, lack of transparency and accountability plague the system while individuals in detention suffer.”

Activists have long criticized the U.S. immigration detention system, and mainstream news organizations also have turned their attention to the issue. For all that ink, it doesn't seem to gain much traction. Maybe that's to be expected when every reasoned discussion about our broken immigration system reverts almost immediately to simplistic arguments along the lines of: "What part of illegal don't you understand?"

In Iowa, of all places, we should know it's no simple task to understand our dysfunctional immigration system, let alone try to figure out ways to fix it.