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Abstract
This Note argues that U.S. immigration detention, though legally classified as civil, operates as a punitive carceral system that routinely subjects immigrants to abuse, neglect, and preventable death. Drawing on the tragic case of Ernesto Javier Rocha Cuadra and other documented instances of physical violence, medical neglect, solitary confinement, and sexual abuse, it demonstrates how U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ('ICE') relies on detention as a default mechanism rather than as a last resort. The result is a system that mirrors the criminal legal system in scale and severity but denies detainees its constitutional safeguards.
The analysis situates the rise of mass detention within the broader punitive turn of the 1980s and 1990s, when immigration enforcement became deeply entangled with the war on drugs and racialized narratives of crime. By examining the barriers that immigrant detainees face in private litigation and the limitations of government enforcement actions, this Note highlights how the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause remains underenforced in this context. It contends that detainees' liberty interests are systematically undervalued, allowing ICE to evade accountability while perpetuating unconstitutional conditions of confinement.
To address these structural failures, this Note proposes a two-pronged compelling-necessity standard. First, a detention policy framework would create a presumption of release for individuals with a prima facie case for humanitarian relief, building upon alternatives to detention that have proven more effective and cost-efficient. Second, courts would apply a balancing test permitting restrictive conditions only when justified by compelling necessities of detention administration. Together, these reforms would recalibrate the balance between governmental interests and detainees' rights, offering a path toward meaningful due process protections and safeguarding the dignity and lives of immigrant populations.
Recommended Citation
Kyle J. Smith,
When Detention Becomes a Death Sentence: The Urgent Need for Greater Due Process Protections for ICE Detainees,
79 Vanderbilt Law Review
675
(2026)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.vanderbilt.edu/vlr/vol79/iss2/6