President Joe Biden vowed to end the federal government’s use of private prisons on the campaign trail. His campaign platform further stated that “the federal government should not use private facilities for any detention, including detention of undocumented immigrants.” And in 2021, Biden stepped into office continuing to promise that he would address the human rights abuses that pervade the immigration detention system.
These promises were repeated but have so far proven to be empty.
After almost two full years in office, the Biden administration has nearly doubled the number of migrants it holds in immigration detention, with 30,000 migrants behind bars and with about 80% of them held in private facilities.
