Biden will no longer detain migrants at two county jails. That's good but not enough.

The Biden administration will no longer detain immigrants in two county jails in Georgia and Massachusetts amid claims of abuse and neglect.

The move by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas drew praise from immigrant advocates, but they are right when they say this must be the beginning of a broader review of detention centers and agreements with local authorities.

“We have seen time and time again that the immigrant detention apparatus is fundamentally broken,” Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., said in a statement. “Many of these facilities like Irwin are privately owned and have created a perverse profit incentive to keep more immigrants locked up.”

Grijalva hit the nail on the head. It’s the whole system of privateering by keeping people locked up that must end. In this case, it wasn’t just the privateers making a buck. It was the government’s lack of proper supervision that has led to allegations of rampant abuse.

A good first step to end mistreatment

Mayorkas this week ordered ICE to stop using the C. Carlos Carreiro Immigrant Detention Facility in Massachusetts and end the 287(g) agreement, which allows local law enforcement to carry out some federal immigration enforcement duties, with the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office.

He also ordered ICE to sever – as soon as legally possible – a contract with the Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia amid federal and state investigations into immigrant abuses. Most notorious is the allegation that folks at Irwin were performing hysterectomies on female detainees without their consent. 

In his memo to ICE, Mayorkas made clear he wants to continue reviewing concerns with other federal immigration detention centers. “We have an obligation to make lasting improvements to our civil immigration detention system,” Mayorkas said. “This marks an important first step to realizing that goal.”

That’s a good step. But since allegations of abuse and mistreatment against migrant detainees aren’t new, Mayorkas must act faster to look at county jails and detention centers housing migrants.

In Arizona, ICE lists six detention facilities located in Florence, Eloy and Phoenix. Here, too, the feds have reported shenanigans.

For instance, at the privately owned and operated La Palma Correctional Center in Eloy, officers fired pepper balls, pepper spray and other chemicals at detainees to quell peaceful protests over the spread of COVID-19, according to a report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General.

Former DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano: Biden is making immigration moves that will pay off 

Enforcing immigration is – and must remain – strictly a federal responsibility. The feds must end the for-profit immigration jails and the 287(g) agreements that effectively turn local cops into immigration officers. Such agreements were expanded under former President Donald Trump, but they are nothing more than a pipeline to fill both private and government detention centers.

Local officers can't solve migrant surge

Remember Joe Arpaio’s immigration patrols that cost Maricopa County millions of dollars in taxpayer money in legal fees and other court-mandated compliance? He used a 287(g) agreement to justify work raids, traffic stops and migrant arrests.

The feds in late 2011 revoked its 287(g) agreement with Arpaio, who’s no longer sheriff – thank the heavens and Maricopa County voters for that.

But ICE still lists 71 such agreements in 21 states, including six in Arizona. The 287(g) agreements in Arizona are with the state’s Department of Corrections, the Mesa Police Department and the sheriff’s offices of La Paz, Pinal and Yavapai counties.

Help prevent crime: Get state, local law enforcement out of the immigration business

“These agreements represent a wasteful use of public funds, deter immigrant victims and witnesses from reporting crimes, and often lead to racial profiling,’’ Daniel Pereira of the MIRA coalition, which advocates the end of all 287(g) agreements, said in a statement.

I get that Biden is facing a huge logistical and political predicament with the surge of asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico border. But letting local officers act as immigration agents won’t help solve the migrant surge one bit. It only serves to round up immigrants, which in turn also helps private companies make a profit.

Elvia Díaz is an editorial columnist for The Republic and azcentral, where this column first appeared. Follow her on Twitter: @elviadiaz1