Feds pay illegal immigrants for jobs while in custody

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By SUSAN CARROLL Copyright 2009 Houston Chronicle

March 26, 2009, 10:08PM

If you were to stop on a street corner anywhere in America and
knowingly hire an illegal immigrant to do your laundry or clean your
basement, you would be breaking the law.

But for years, the federal government has been paying immigration
detainees $1 a day to perform menial work in the nation’s public and
private detention centers.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials insist there is no
double standard, saying the Voluntary Work Program offers detainees a
break from the monotony of incarceration and a chance to earn money
while they are locked up.

Rutgers University criminal justice professor Michael Welch called the
program a “paradox.”

“It’s ironic that these undocumented immigrants are barred from
working legally in the community, but while behind bars, they are not
only allowed but encouraged to work for a dollar a day,” Welch said.

ICE officials have found an eager work force in their growing network
of detention centers, which house an estimated 400,000 immigrants
annually.

The agency does not track participation in the work program on a
national level, said ICE spokesman Gregory Palmore, though more than
11,000 detainees participated last fiscal year at one Houston
detention center alone.

Immigrant advocates offered general support for the program, saying it
at least gives detainees an opportunity to pass the time by doing
something other than sitting in a cell.

But the irony of the program is not lost on some.

“Why can the U.S. government hire undocumented immigrants? And not
only hire them, but get a day’s work for a dollar?” said Brittney
Nystrom, senior legal advisor at the National Immigration Forum, an
immigrant advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. “It really
is an absurdity.”

ICE says program legal

ICE officials say the program is perfectly legal. There is no specific
statute, regulation or executive order authorizing the program, ICE
said in a statement.

The program “does not constitute employment and is done by detainees
on a voluntary basis for a small stipend,” according to ICE.

Nystrom had a hard time buying that legal explanation, citing ICE’s
own detention standards, which describe the program as providing
“monetary compensation for work completed.”

“That sounds like employment to me,” Nystrom said.

Variety of jobs performed

At Houston’s Contract Detention Facility on the city’s north side,
about 200 immigration detainees are currently participating in the
work program, performing jobs including cleaning and washing dishes,
laundry, and maintenance of the facility, according to ICE.

Others jobs include working as a barber and helping in the medical
clinic, law library or commissary.

ICE officials said no detainees from the Houston facility performed
work outside of the detention center grounds.

The Houston detention center is owned and operated by Corrections
Corporation of America, one of the nation’s largest private prison
companies.

CCA’s warden in Houston, Robert Lacy, referred questions about the
program to ICE.

Work programs are commonplace in state and federal prisons.

The lowest-paying jobs in the Federal Bureau of Prison system, such as
cleaning and grounds keeping, pay 12 to 40 cents per hour.

In its statement, ICE officials said the program gives detainees “an
opportunity to be gainfully occupied on a voluntary basis.”

The agency added that perhaps the most important benefit from the
program is “reducing inactivity and disciplinary problems.”