Enacts the "Dignity Not Detention" act

• Democratic91

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Julia Salazar says this is needed

Immigration detention is dangerous, undermines public safety, and is a threat to New Yorkers all over the state. Immigration detention harms not only the individuals detained but also their loved ones from whom they are separated and their communities. Many individuals detained by ICE are productive and valuable members of their communities, have families that include U.S. citizens, and many are, themselves, lawfully in this country. Many have valid pending claims for asylum. The COVID-19 pandemic underscored the public health threats that detention centers pose to detained individuals, their loved ones, and the health of all New Yorkers. New York's contracts to profit from the detention of immigrants fuel a larger deportation machine in which people are separated from their loved ones and forced into cages. ICE detention is inhumane and puts people's lives in danger. Many indi- viduals in ICE detention have neither been accused of nor convicted of criminal offenses. People in ICE custody endure horrific conditions including outbreaks of COVID-19, sexual abuse, denial of health care, harassment by guards, and unsanitary conditions. In view of the announced and anticipated massive federal increase in efforts to detain and deport immigrants in 2025, New York must take steps to protect New Yorkers from such treatment. New York is the proud home of immigrants and immigrant families from every country in the world. This diversity makes our communities strong. We must concretely demonstrate New York's commitment to protecting the rights of immigrants and immigrant families. Reducing bedspace and limiting detention capacity as would be accom- plished by the enactment of this bill--results in less enforcement and detention. The 2022 report by the Detention Watch Network Report and the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, "If You Build It, ICE Will Fill It: The Link Between Detention Capacity and ICE Arrests", established that immi- grants in counties with detention space and counties with an overall higher carceral capacity are significantly more likely to be arrested and detained by ICE. One of their key findings was that closing detention facilities is a crucial shift to protecting immigrant communi- ties by reducing enforcement, detention, and deportation. (1) The Orange County Correctional Facility ("OCCF"), which incarcerates most of the ICE detainees from New York City and has the largest, popu- lation of people in ICE custody in New York outside of the Federal detention center in Batavia, has been the subject of numerous Complaints, including in 2022 (2) and 2023 (3), City Council hearings, and investigations in response to ongoing outcry against the rampant abuses inside the facility. Immigrant detainees incarcerated at OCCF initiated a hunger strike on February 16, 2022, to protest conditions. Those who went on hunger strike reported retaliation, including solitary confinement, confis- cation of tablets, and restricted access to commissary. On February 28, 2022, The New York City Council Immigration Committee held an oversight hearing on COVID-19 in Immigration Detention, with a particular focus on the harms at Orange County Correctional Facility. During the hearing, people who were formerly or currently detained at the facility shared stories of the abuse and harassment they suffer at the hands of guards, the low quality of food, and lack of access to medical and mental health care, and compromised access to counsel. Although Ehe reports on OCCF are the worst in the State, there have been reports of other facilities that detain immigrant New Yorkers that have caused harm through gross negligence. Complaints have also been filed against Rensselaer County Jail in response to egregious living conditions and medical negligence. After their oversight hearing, the NYC Council adopted a resolution, Res 0066-2022, on March 10, 2022, calling on the NYS Legislature to pass and the Governor to sign the Dignity Not Detenti on bill. In the f

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.