by Maurizio Guerrero This story was originally published at Prism. Despite President Joe Biden’s stated commitment to opening a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and promises to stop retaliation against immigrants and their advocates, immigrants who denounce abusive treatment in detention are still subjected to violent and abusive reprisal. According to testimonies and court documents, as recently as in May, immigrants in detention who engaged in protests were punished and official records show that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)—in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—has renewed contracts to procure the same technology that has been used to surveil and harass advocates and activists. If anything, DHS will now have a larger budget to expand its surveillance infrastructure and more resources to intimidate people into silence and prevent them from shedding light on abuses. “The Biden administration has not yet signaled that this is an issue important enough to address,” said Sejal Zota, the legal director of Just Futures Law, a nonprofit that advocates for immigrants’ rights. Zota edited a report released last August that documents surveillance and retaliation against immigration advocates from 2011 to 2020. “Retaliation is still happening under this new administration.” The Biden administration’s immigration enforcement guidelines issued on Sept. 30 mention that a noncitizen’s freedom of speech should never prompt enforcement action and warns against using the law to retaliate for the assertion of legal rights. They also call for immigration officials to apply discretion in each case, and DHS director Alexandro Mayorkas told reporters the guidelines will enable the department to “understand the totality of the facts and circumstances and then make a determination whether the individual in fact poses a public safety threat.” Read more