“... We cannot remain silent when migrants are dehumanized and locked in prisons for profit; when children are put in cages and denied access to soap, toothbrushes, and even diapers; and when our colleagues and human rights workers are prosecuted in federal (US) courts for providing food, water and shelter to people in need…. (Swanson, 2019).”

In memory of Carlos Gregorio Hernández Vázquez, who died in May 2019, at an immigration detention center in Texas, United States. He, like many other migrants, was killed by the contempt and violence of a racist government.

Violence, migration and racism

In the current context of irregular migration to the United States (EU), racism as a migration policy promotes the criminalization (social and legal) of forced migrants (mainly Central American and Mexican), and this works as an engine and justification for serious and widespread violations of the human rights of migrants. This is especially true in the detention centers of the Border Patroll and ICE. In these detention centers the situation is so serious and there is widespread and structural violence so pronounced that several minor migrants have lost their lives in these places. Racism, characterized by being a process of exclusion and violence (by physical type and national ethnicity), has become the axis of several decisions on migration. To this we must add that violence not only has an extralegal and factual nature, but also that the law has become a discrimination device used to institutionalize the criminalization of migrants. This occurs within the framework of the zero tolerance policy of the current US president, which has been distinguished in recent years by a growing onslaught characterized, among other measures, by repeated attempts to build / expand the border wall, growth of ICE and the border patrol, the media and legal criminalization of migrants and the increase in arrests within the US.

Human rights violations in detention centers in the US

In the past year, there was a record in the number of migrants detained during the current US government. According to UN data, by 2019, more than 100,000 migrant children detained in the US (most of them Central Americans) were registered. And to date, more than 5,400 migrant children have been separated from their families, in the context of the more than 200 immigration detention centers in the US. Violations of human rights in these centers are varied and can range from precarious food (often rancid food and spoiled), to the lack of hygiene and hygiene conditions (no soap, no diapers, showers are not frequent, in many centers there are no beds and they are very cold places). In addition, detained migrants do not have access to medical services, both previous illnesses or those caused there due to adverse living conditions are not treated. It has also been documented that migrants do not have access to the asylum application procedure or legal advice. However, the most serious aggressions are those related to physical abuse and maltreatment, the separation of families, the detention of children and minors, and especially the death of migrants and migrant children in detention centers, derived from the lack of medical attention This is the result of widespread contempt and attacks on migrants.

Sociopolitical construction of violence

The previously described situation occurs due to several causes. As authors such as Hansen (2019) have pointed out, detention centers are and function as de facto prisons, and are chracterized by poor living conditions for detainees. That is due and justified by the irregular status of migrants. The above derives from a stigmatized perception of undocumented migrants (stimulated by racism and misinformation), a perception that contributes to criminalization and to making laws more rigid / punitive.

In addition, this happens in economic / political contexts of privatization of detention centers, which lately have been affected by severe and structural deficiencies in operation (this with the purpose of lowering costs). Continuing with the line of reflection of Hansen (2019), to this are added the questionable internal and external policies of the detention centers, which are characterized by not complying with the basic / indispensable normative standards, non-supervision, non-transparency and by being overpopulated. Finally, they do not guarantee the conditions for legal defense and recognition of the rights of detainees

All the above has impacts on the living conditions of detainees. In the area of health, the physical and mental situation of the detainees is alarming and deplorable, there is no medical attention, they have bad food and they live in unsanitary contexts. The diseases and deaths of migrants have been proof of this. In the psychosocial sphere, the separation of families and isolated and detained children triggers very serious psychological conditions and damage, which can have permanent repercussions. And economically, a good part of the detainees are the main economic support of their families in their countries of origin.

Measures to reduce the violation of human rights

Faced with this situation, it is essential that:

1) Detention centers must adhere to the legal frameworks and standards prescribed by law. This urgently and mandatorily implies the improvement of the living conditions of the detainees.

2) Detention as a migration and border policy should be reduced, there are other alternatives for irregular migrants.

3) The socio-media, political and legal criminalization must be stopped.

4) Different migration policies are needed, not national security and based on racism, but policies with a human security axis.

5) Finally, the forced nature of irregular migration must be recognized. Migrants are not criminals, but precarious people expelled from their countries.