A/HRC/7/12/Add.2 page 20 section now provides that a person who is in criminal custody shall be denied bail “if the proof is evident or presumption great” that the person is guilty of a serious felony offence and the person “has entered or remained in the United States illegally”. In addition to the serious due process and equal protection issues this provision raises, by mandating different treatment for non-citizens and citizens in criminal proceedings and requiring state officials with little understanding of the complexity of immigration laws to enforce those laws, it also virtually ensures the eventual transfer of these individuals to Department of Homeland Security custody (even if they are never convicted), further increasing the number of people potentially subject to mandatory, prolonged, and indefinite detention. 84. Immigrants indefinitely detained are left uncertain of their status, their rights and their futures. Indefinite detention subjects the families of detained immigrants to the agony of not knowing when their loved one will be released or removed. It exacerbates existing mental health problems and retraumatizes individuals who have been subjected to torture or other forms of persecution in their home countries. 85. A March 2007 Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) report revealed that ICE is non-compliant with regulations governing the review of post-order cases following the two Supreme Court rulings on indefinite detention. 86. The OIG study further found that ICE failed to provide detainees with prior notice of custody reviews, information about how they can cooperate in removal efforts or decisions that clearly explain why supervised release has been denied. OIG attributed many of these failures to inadequate staffing both at local ICE field offices and headquarters, leading to insufficient oversight of local custody decisions. 87. Without the ability to comply uniformly with the current regulations there can be no reasonable expectation that ICE has the capacity to handle its large caseload resulting in part from the efforts of the Department of Homeland Security to secure the border. III. THE PLIGHT OF MIGRANT WORKERS: THE CASE OF HURRICANE KATRINA A. Background 88. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans and other areas of the United States Gulf Coast in 2005, several hundred thousand workers, mostly African Americans, lost their jobs and their homes, and many became internally displaced persons (IDPs). Since the storm, these IDPs have faced tremendous structural barriers to returning home and to finding the employment necessary to rebuild their lives. Without housing, they cannot work; without work, they cannot afford housing. Since Hurricane Katrina, tens of thousands of migrant workers, most of them undocumented, have arrived in the Gulf Coast region to work in the reconstruction zones. They have made up much of the labour to rebuild the area, to keep businesses running and to boost tax revenue. To support their families, migrant workers often work longer hours for less pay than other labourers. For some migrant workers, wages continue to decrease. Jobs are becoming scarcer because the most urgent work, gutting homes and removing debris, is mostly finished.