Los Angeles Times
By Molly Hennessey Fiske
June 7, 2015
Federal
officials face increasing pressure to stop detaining immigrant families
and release more than 1,300 mothers and children.
At
least 600 families — many of whom fled violence in Central America —
were being held at three federal detention centers, officials said
recently.
As
of April, half had stayed there less than a month and 70% for less than
two months, according to a law enforcement official who asked not to be
identified because the
official was unauthorized to speak publicly.
More
than 4,500 individuals were in family detention centers from July
through April, the official said, with 67% of them released and 664
removed from the country.
Most Americans support path to legal status for immigrants, poll shows
The
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee became the latest group to
call on the government to end family detention. The group's leaders
posted a petition on their
website Friday demanding that the director of U.S. Immigration and
Customs Enforcement release the children and mothers, including a woman
who had attempted suicide and others who were pregnant.
"Neither
ICE nor the private owners of its family detention centers are capable
of providing the levels of care for vulnerable people like pregnant
mothers that are even
marginally acceptable by any humane, legal, moral or American
standard," said Rachel Gore Freed, a program leader with the group who
has visited the Karnes City, Texas, detention center.
Officials
said a woman at the Karnes City detention center was under observation
after suffering a wrist abrasion, but they denied there had been
miscarriages or attempted
suicides.
Gillian
Christensen, an ICE spokeswoman, said the agency "takes very seriously
the health, safety and welfare of those in our care."
The
agency "is committed to ensuring that all individuals housed in our
family residential centers receive timely and appropriate medical
screenings and treatment," including
"pregnancy screenings at arrival, onsite prenatal care and education,
and remote access to specialists for pregnant women who remain in
custody," she said.
Some pregnant women have been released, but decisions are made on a case-by-case basis, she said.
Last
month, 136 Democratic members of Congress called on Homeland Security
Secretary Jeh Johnson to stop confining families. "We cannot continue to
hear reports of serious
harm to children in custody and do nothing about it," they said.
"Detaining mothers and children in jail-like settings is not the
answer."
An
18-year-old court settlement is complicating the situation. Flores vs.
Meese required the U.S. to release migrant children or house them in the
"least restrictive environment."
Immigrant rights advocates have sued, contending that family detention violated the Flores settlement.
A federal judge in Los Angeles agreed at an April hearing.
U.S.
District Judge Dolly Gee made a preliminary ruling that immigrant
children and mothers could not be held at unlicensed facilities such as
those in Karnes City and
Dilley, Texas, and that it was inappropriate to hold a parent and child
unless there was a flight or safety risk, according to a memo from one
of the attorneys involved.
Gee
has issued a gag order in the case, but the latest developments are
detailed in memos circulated by the families' attorneys and a transcript
of the April 24 hearing.
Gee
said she would not alter the Flores settlement, but would allow the two
sides to negotiate a revised agreement before her final ruling, which
could be issued as early
as Monday.
Immigrant rights advocates initially were optimistic that Gee's ruling would help mothers and children win their release.
"Immigrant
'family detention' policy is gonna end," wrote one of the attorneys
handling the case, Peter Schey, in a Facebook post after the hearing,
adding: "Court ruled
the policy violates a nationwide settlement we reached in the Flores
case few years back. Court gave DHS [Homeland Security] 30 days to meet
with us to figure out how to end 'family detention' that violates the
Flores settlement which generally limits detention
of children to 72 hours. Will keep you posted."
But
Leon Fresco, a deputy assistant attorney general, warned Gee that if
her initial ruling stood, it would encourage the administration to
separate parents and children,
turning youths into "de facto unaccompanied children."
"This
isn't a situation where we want to detain the mother. These are
situations where we have to detain the mother" because she is flight
risk, he said, adding, "We're
not going to release the adults."
Fresco
argued that the Flores agreement didn't take into account family
detention, which began in 2001, and is necessary if the parent is a
flight risk or if children
need to be kept with a parent for safety reasons, he said.
If
the Flores agreement means the government must release children without
their parents, Fresco said, "the outcome of this is going to be to
separate families, create
uncertainty where we don't have uncertainty now and to endanger
children."
Gee
appeared unmoved. Fresco "is simply saying that he thinks all hell will
break loose if I issue my order and cause this whole system of
residential centers to collapse
of its own weight," she said.
The
Homeland Security Department ramped up family detention last summer as
more than 68,000 families crossed the southern border.
In
addition to a nearly 100-bed facility in central Pennsylvania, the
agency opened three larger family detention centers in Texas and New
Mexico. The New Mexico center
has since closed, but federal officials are expanding the others in
Karnes City and Dilley to house 3,500 detainees this summer.
After last summer's surge, multiple lawsuits concerning family detention were filed in California, Texas and Washington, D.C.
This
year, the American Civil Liberties Union won the release on bond of
some asylum-seeking mothers after an immigration officer or judge found
they had a "credible fear"
of persecution at home.
In
response, ICE officials announced May 14 that they would improve family
detention conditions and create a review process for those detained for
more than three months.
They are also appointing an in-house official to review conditions at
the three family detention centers and a panel of experts to advise
Johnson about family detention.
A
week later, Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose) delivered a scathing critique
of family detention, comparing conditions to what she had seen in
Syrian refugee camps in Jordan.
"Jordanians are treating refugees from Syria a heck of a lot better than we're treating immigrants from Honduras," she said.
Women
detained at the Karnes City facility have sued and complained of abuse,
but those claims have not been substantiated by ICE and Homeland
Security inspector general
investigations.
Christensen,
the ICE spokeswoman, said she could not discuss pending cases, but
called family detention centers a "humane alternative for maintaining
family unity" during
waits for court hearings.
As
for the government's suggestion that it might have to release children
while keeping parents in custody, it's unclear how that would work.
"Forcing
that parent to choose who to give their child to seems to be
overreaching," said Linda Brandmiller, a San Antonio-based immigration
attorney representing five
of the mothers.
Some
detained mothers don't have other relatives in the U.S., and others
have relatives who work and would be unable to care for the children,
Brandmiller said.
A
client at Karnes City, Raymunda Pastor, 35, fled Guatemala with her
4-year-old daughter in August when her husband was found hanged after a
land dispute.
"There's
no one to release the child to" in the U.S., Brandmiller said, adding:
"We allow convicted criminals out on bond. They would seem more of a
flight risk than moms
and babies."
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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