From Jamaica Observer

HOUSTON (CMC) –The New York Times newspaper says the United States federal government is relying on tens of thousands of Caribbean and other immigrants to provide essential labour even as Washington cracks down on illegal migration.

The paper said the immigrants usually work for one dollar a day or less at the detention centres where they are held.

But the paper said in an exposé on Sunday that this work programme is facing increasing resistance from detainees and criticism from immigrant advocates.

It pointed to a lawsuit last month accusing immigration authorities in Tacoma, Washington, of putting detainees in solitary confinement after they staged a work stoppage and hunger strike.

The paper reported that in Houston, guards pressed other immigrants to cover shifts left vacant by detainees who refused to work in the kitchen.

But while US federal authorities say the programme is voluntary, legal and a cost-saver for taxpayers, immigrant advocates query whether it is truly voluntary or lawful, arguing that the government and the private prison companies that run many of the detention centers are bending the rules to convert a captive population into a self-contained labor force.

According to data from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency, last year, at least 60,000 immigrants worked in the federal government’s nationwide patchwork of detention centers, more than worked for any other single employer in the country.

The New York Times said the cheap labour, 13 cents an hour, saves the government and the private companies US$40 million or more a year by allowing them to avoid paying outside contractors the US$7.25 federal minimum wage.

It said some immigrants held at county jails work for free, or are paid with sodas or candy bars, while also providing services like meal preparation for other government institutions.

Unlike inmates convicted of crimes, who often participate in prison work programmes and forfeit their rights to many wage protections, the newspaper said these immigrants are civil detainees placed in holding centers, most of them awaiting hearings to determine their legal status.

For more on this story go to: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Newspaper-claims-US-uses-jailed-Caribbean-migrants-for-cheap-labour