New York Times (Editorial)
July 4, 2015
Homeland
Security Secretary Jeh Johnson took a step in the right direction last
month when he announced “substantial changes” in how the department
treats migrant families
taken into custody along the southern border.
He
was responding to widespread concerns that mothers with young children —
already traumatized after fleeing gang violence, domestic abuse and
poverty in Honduras, El
Salvador and Guatemala, and making the long, dangerous trek north —
were being harmed anew by long, indeterminate confinement in the
department’s family prisons in southern Texas and in Pennsylvania.
In
his June 24 announcement, Mr. Johnson said most detainees who had been
languishing as they awaited final decisions on their asylum claims could
now be released quickly
on bond, to stay with family members in the United States. They would
only have to complete the first step in the asylum-seeking process, an
interview to describe credible fears of returning home. Department
statistics show that 88 percent of families in detention
this year have passed this first hurdle. Mr. Johnson also said the
department would set bond amounts, which had been prohibitive for most
migrants, at “reasonable and realistic” levels, and make it easier for
lawyers and interpreters to meet with detainees.
“The
detention of families will be short-term in most cases,” he promised.
“Most cases” is an improvement, though it should be all cases. For many
of the thousands of
women and young children, freedom cannot come soon enough.
One
27-year-old woman, who recently spoke with Julia Preston of The Times,
fled Honduras because drug traffickers had killed five of her relatives
and told her she was
next. She had been locked up in detention in Dilley, Tex., since
February with two children, ages 9 and 6. “I would be lying if I said
they didn’t treat us well,” she said. But she added, “My children get so
sad, and they ask me, ‘Mama, when will we get out
of here?’ ”
Though
conditions in Dilley seem clean and safe, with a school and a medical
clinic, extended imprisonment leaves many despairing. Some women have
tried to kill themselves.
Others have waged protests, as the months have dragged on.
Evidence
of mental-health problems — anxiety, depression and thoughts of suicide
— among families in detention has prompted three immigrant-rights
groups to file a complaint
urging the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights
and Civil Liberties to investigate. The office should do so, even as the
department begins what should be the large-scale release of families
seeking asylum.
These
family detention centers were supposed to be a stopgap measure to
handle the surge last year of tens of thousands of migrants, some of
them children traveling alone,
who showed up at the border, seeking out Border Patrol agents so they
could turn themselves in.
The
Obama administration was rattled by the humanitarian crisis and the
ensuing political furor, and it hoped its tough detention policy would
send a message to Central
America that people should not make the dangerous trip. But as Mr.
Johnson’s announcement belatedly acknowledges, deterrence was the wrong
response. This is a refugee crisis, not a crisis of border security.
Families
seeking protection in the United States deserve a swift, fair hearing
of their petitions; prolonged confinement is damaging. The government
should be doing all
it can to help them, not penalizing them in immigration jails.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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