ICE releases hundreds of women, children from detention

Arizona Republic

By Bob Ortega

July 14, 2015

ICE releases hundreds of women, children from detention

Immigrations and Customs Enforcement has released some 200 people, mostly women and children, from family-detention centers since last Friday. The move is part of a sweeping series of changes the agency has made in recent months to when and for how long families seeking asylum are being detained.

The releases follow a long campaign by human-rights groups, since last year's spike in migration from Central America, to end Homeland Security's policy of detaining families as a way to discourage migration. The numbers of children and families crossing the border have dropped sharply since last year's spike of about 120,000 families and unaccompanied children.

But even as immigrant-rights groups welcomed the releases, they called for closing the family detention centers entirely. At the same time, a new federal audit suggested that Border Patrol agents and Customs and Border Protection officers may have illegally deported thousands of unaccompanied children under 14 years old over the past five years.

"It is a huge step forward that families, some held for months or even more than a year, are finally being released from detention," said Eleanor Acer, director of refugee protection at Human Rights First. "At the same time, it's important to note that they are continuing to send new families into these detention centers."

Acer also said a report by the General Accounting Office that border agents aren't properly screening children before deporting them was "disturbing, but not surprising, given a long history of deficiencies in screening" by CBP.

Tuesday morning, in testimony to the House Judiciary Committee, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson laid out the changes ICE is making or has made in handling detained families.

He said that he directed U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to speed up interviews of families seeking asylum to determine whether they have a credible fear of being harmed if they are deported. Staffing shortages have led to months-long backlogs.

He also said that ICE has set standards for establishing bond amounts "at a level that is reasonable and realistic, taking into account ability to pay ... flight risk and public safety." Immigration attorneys have said that bonds have been set at anywhere from $5,000 to more than $20,000, amounts that most detained families can't realistically meet.

Johnson also said DHS has:

• Begun reviewing cases of any families detained more than 90 days to see whether they should be released under supervision, with priority given to those held longest

• Ended the practice of using "general deterrence" as a justification for detaining families

• Taken steps to improve conditions at the centers, along with improving families' access to legal counsel, social workers and medical care

• Agreed to appoint a federal advisory committee of outside experts to advice ICE and DHS on family detention issues.

As of Monday, ICE officials said that 2,101 people were being held at two family detention facilities in Texas, and 71 at a family-detention center in Pennsylvania. Immigration attorneys working at the centers said that about 200 people had been released in recent days. ICE did not confirm or dispute the release numbers reported by attorneys.

In a press statement, ICE confirmed that newly arriving families are being detained, but said that "going forward, ICE will generally not detain mothers with children, absent a threat to public safety or national security, if they have received a positive finding for credible or reasonable fear and the individual has provided a verifiable residential address."

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the General Accounting Office released a study looking at Homeland Security's handling of screening and providing care for detained unaccompanied children.

By law, Border Patrol agents and Customs officers turn detained children from countries other than Mexico or Canada over the Health and Human Services. Children from Mexico or Canada can be deported back to their countries. But, by law, agents first have to question children, and they are barred from sending back trafficking victims, those at risk of being trafficked, those who have a credible fear or persecution, and those who can't make an independent decision about returning.

But even though CBP's own regulations say that children "under age 14 are presumed generally unable to make an independent decision," the GAO said that CBP's data and a random sample of case files showed that between 2009 and last year, CBP sent back 93 percent of Mexican unaccompanied children under 14 "without documenting the basis for decisions." That amounted to more than 6,800 children, according to data in the GAO report.

For more information, go to:  www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com