Diana Soriano-Zamora
Instructor:
January 31, 2015
Undocumented immigrants: Detained
Imagine being scared of going out to places as simple as a store. This is a problem that
many undocumented immigrants face on a regular basis.
The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of
2013(S.744) will help lower the amount of immigrants in prison due to immigration related
crimes. In the book Exile Nation Drugs, Prison, Politics & Spirituality by Charles Shaw, the
author tells his life story and informs the reader on how the prison system it failing to help our
society. Using his past as a journalist he decides to document the prison system when he finds
himself sentenced to prison time. During his time in prison Shaw interviews prisoners, doing this
he sheds light on the crimes committed against both prisoner and society by the prison system.
One of the biggest problems in this book is discrimination based on race, which brought up the
issue of immigrants in prison and how a great majority of undocumented prisoners are in prison
for immigration crimes.
In 2009 Latino convicts represented the largest population in the federal prison system.
Adult Latinos in that year made up only 13 percent of the population in the United States but
made up one third of the federal prison inmates. Of Latinos in prison 48 percent were convicted
of immigration crimes. Of those Latino prisoners 72 percent were not legally in the United
States. Private prisons are against an immigration reform because the make great profits with
detaining immigrants. .In the past 2 decades the Immigration and Naturalization Services’ main
purpose was to help undocumented immigrants pursue a way to be legalized, but they have not
been doing very much of that. The greatest of their work is in capturing illegal immigrants, and
putting them behind bars. They do this because there is a greater profit from capturing illegal,
then there is in helping them become legalized Americans.
The Border Security, Economic Opportunity, and Immigration Modernization Act of
2013 which is also known as S.744 was introduced to the United States Senate of the United
States Congress on April 16, 2013. This bill was created by a bipartisan group of 8 United States
Senators. These Senators are regularly referred to as the “Ganged of 8”. This bill was voted out
when first introduction it to congress, this bill is still open but is having a hard time passing
because of so many groups against it. Privatized prisons are some of the main groups against it
