The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has poured millions of dollars into two privately-operated detention centers for women and children in Karnes City and Dilley, both located south of San Antonio, Texas.
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In recent weeks, in the face of mounting political pressure and a federal lawsuit challenging the detention of children, ICE began moving families through the centers faster, allowing many women to receive ankle monitors instead of paying bonds.
The government said the centers would help deter others from coming to the U.S.-Mexico border. By September 2014, a few 68,000 unaccompanied minors had arrived at the U.S.’ southern border.
The 1997 settlement at issue bars immigrant children from being held in unlicensed, secure facilities. Until new detention centers were opened, many were released and told to appear at immigration offices.
“They are holding children in unsafe facilities, it’s that simple”, Schey told The Associated Press. Government lawyers have previously threatened to comply with a court order by releasing children while continuing to detain their mothers.
The increased holding of immigrant parents and their children in U.S. detention facilities pending deportation was one measure introduced following a wave of child migrants to the United States past year. Pushing the monitors is an abuse of authority, he said, that “threatens the entire immigration court process”.
Immigration experts said they don’t think the ruling will drive more immigrants to come to the border.
The ICE official said during that meeting that it was necessary to detain families to ensure they didn’t vanish.
Stephen Yale-Loehr, a professor at Cornell University Law School, said officials could still keep children in custody, but they would have to invest significant money to improve detention conditions to do so. “The government should also recognize that separating a child from their parent is very rarely in the child’s best interest, and take that mean-spirited proposal off the table”.
“They’re getting shot at”. Where do they go when they’re caught?
The judge gave officials until August 3 to respond as to why those immigrants should not be released within 90 days of that pending order.
“This court ruling is a chance for the US government to put a definitive end to its harmful and illegal family detention policy”, Long said. To prevent it from taking effect, officials would need to seek a stay.
The flood of immigrants has slowed from peaks last year, but is still high, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said earlier this summer.
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“Children and their mothers were held for one to three days in rooms with 100 or more unrelated adults and children, which forced children to sleep standing up or not at all”, wrote Gee, who is based in Los Angeles.
