Immigrant Community Cautiously Awaits Changes At ICE

Rumbo and La Opinion, News Report 

LOS ANGELES -- The Office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that it is shifting its priorities to focus on counterterrorism, improved border security, and enforcement of immigration laws, as well as promising better detention center conditions, reports Houston-based Spanish-language newspaper Rumbo. In its Strategic Priorities Plan for the 2010-2014 fiscal years, ICE established a focus on prevention of terrorist attacks. In an editorial in La Opinión, editors write that the changes are welcome, but caution that they hope ICE's new image is more than a publicity
stunt.

Editors of La Opinión applauded a recent agreement between ICE and the contractor Correction Corporation of America (CCA) to improve the conditions at immigrant detention centers.

“Immigrants detained by ICE are not criminals," editors write. "Most of them await hearings to present their cases and avoid deportation. They do not deserve to be treated like prison inmates. It seems that ICE has finally understood this difference after numerous cases of mistreatment—and even deaths—of people in its custody in detention centers.”

ICE’s proposal is obviously a positive step and provides hope for improving conditions for immigrants, editors write. But the editorial also voices concern that ICE’s efforts may be a veiled public relations campaign meant to fix the agency’s image, rather than promising real change.