A U.S. Senate committee on Monday adopted a measure that would place strict new limits on how federal immigration authorities may use solitary confinement.
By a voice vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee adopted the proposal as an amendment to the bipartisan immigration overhaul bill now pending in Congress.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials place about 300 immigrants in solitary confinement each week on average, federal records show. At the Stewart Detention Center south of Atlanta, for example, about 20 detainees were isolated this way each week on average across more than four months last year, ICE records show.
ICE said it sometimes segregates people this way to protect them or others in federal immigration detention centers. But critics worry about the psychological harm that could come from prolonged isolation.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connected, offered the amendment. His measure is among hundreds of amendments senators have filed for the bipartisan immigration legislation, which would create a pathway to citizenship for millions of immigrants living illegally in the U.S.
Blumenthal, a member of Judiciary Committee, said in a prepared statement that his amendment would crackdown on the “overuse” of solitary confinement in ICE detention centers. Among other things, his measure would: Prohibit ICE from putting people under 18 in solitary confinement. It would also limit when people with mental illnesses may be segregated this way. And it would block ICE from keeping people in solitary confinement for their own protection for more than 15 days unless the U.S. Homeland Security secretary determines “any less restrictive alternative is more likely than not to cause greater harm.”
The Judiciary Committee adopted more than 70 amendments by Monday afternoon and is seeking to wrap up its work on the bill by Memorial Day.
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