While legislative and executive efforts towards comprehensive immigration reform have been stymied over the last few years, immigration detention has become the fasting growing incarceration system in the United States with nearly a half million people detained and incarcerated annually. A new report by USCCB’s Migration and Refugee Services and the Center for Migration Studies argues that the goals of immigration detention can be accomplished more humanely and at far less cost through a national infrastructure of community-based, supervised release programs. This panel will explore the current state of efforts towards comprehensive immigration reform and immigration enforcement and detention in the United States. It will highlight the Church’s position on the inherent issues, and consider varying government and policy perspectives on the issues. Furthermore, the panel will address ways the Church and its agencies and partners might collaborate in advocacy and service efforts relative to providing alternatives to detention.
