Steigenga, Timothy J.

Private prisons are quickly becoming the new hosts for many of the over 400,000 unauthorized immigrants detained annually in the United States. The argument over whether to privatize is one that involves both practical questions of who can produce the most efficient results and philosophical implications. This thesis argues that privatized immigrant detention creates a perverse incentive structure that may lead to multiple problems, including greater risks for constitutional and human rights violations of immigrant detainees. I utilize Ira P. Robbins’ Legal Dimensions to Private Incarceration
(1998) handbook in order to update and explore the relevance of two legal doctrines as potential challenges to the private immigrant detention industry.

Although thousands of undocumented immigrant students graduate from U.S. high schools each year, only a small percentage of those students opt to enroll in higher education facilities following their graduation. While scholars have discussed the impacts of state and federal legislation that limit the financial aid benefits undocumented students have access to, little has been written about the impacts of tangible enrollment bans.