Using the guise of a “Voluntary Work Program,” immigration detention centers across the United States are coercing detained immigrants into forced labor and justifying it by paying them mere cents an hour. This inhumane program is frequently challenged in domestic courts under federal law. Advocates may also benefit from incorporating arguments based on international law into their strategies. In particular, various treaties that the United States has ratified (the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention Against Torture, and the Abolition of Forced Labour Convention) or at least signed (the American Declarations of the Rights and Duties of Man), as well as customary international law, mandate parties protect all persons held in civil detention, as is the case of those in immigration detention, from forced labor and other internationally condemned practices. Detained immigrants, attorneys, non-governmental organizations, and other advocates may thus make use of the international mechanisms available to  enforce the human rights of immigrants subject to forced labor conditions, and they may likewise rely on international law to litigate these cases in federal courts. Though the United States has repeatedly attempted to skirt its responsibility to international bodies, the path of pursing accountability under international standards is not foreclosed. Moreover, effective and successful reliance on international law may help build the necessary legal infrastructure to prevent the United States from continuing to wage violence against detained immigrants, especially as these arguments become more widely accepted and the use of international mechanisms of accountability becomes more frequent.  

Continue Reading Deploying International Law to Combat Forced Labor in Immigration Detention Centers