Six US Senators have asked the Department of Homeland Security to take immediate steps to ensure that immigrants at detention centers are not used as forced labor by private prison operators following allegations that detainees have been pressured into working for a dollar or less per day to get basic services or food.
The Senators, one Independent and six Democrats, wrote to Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, to raise concerns over a federal work detainee program in private detention centers that should be voluntary after a CNN report last month made the allegations. The Senators expressed concerns over allegations that hygienic supplies, contact with relatives, and adequate food was being withheld from immigrants unless they performed tasks such as sweeping, waxing floors, cleaning showers and toilets, and doing laundry.
The letter sent on 13 August also highlighted a lawsuit alleging that detainees who objected to the forced labor faced punishments including solitary confinement, referral for criminal prosecution, segregation, and the threat of physical violence. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Richard Blumenthal, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker, and Kirsten Gillibrand signed the letter.
In an email, Warren said that US taxpayers should not be paying for immigrants to be exploited and abused in private detention centers and that the Department of Homeland Security is legally and morally obligated to make sure detention centers obey the law and treat detained immigrants with respect and dignity.