Trump to allow indefinite detention of migrant kids
August 21, 2019
The US Department of Homeland Security has said it intends to scrap a rule that prohibits the detention of migrant children for more than 20 days. The step is expected to be challenged in court.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/E. Gay
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The US government said on Wednesday that it would remove limits on how long migrant children can be detained. The move would allow for migrant families detained at the Mexican border to be held until their asylum case is processed, which can take up to several months.
To allow for indefinite detention, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it would terminate the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, a legal ruling that barred the government from holding migrant children in detention for more than 20 days.
The Flores rule, which came in response to a lawsuit citing chronic abuse of migrants in detention, requires that migrants receive adequate and humane care. It requires children be released within 20 days and placed in the custody of their parents or relatives.
But acting DHS Secretary Kevin McAleenan said the ruling "has generally forced the government to release families into the country after just 20 days, incentivizing illegal entry."
"Human smugglers advertise, and intending migrants know well, that even if they cross the border illegally, arriving at our border with a child has meant that they will be released into the United States to wait for court proceedings that could take five years or more," McAleenan said.
‘A humanitarian necessity'
The Trump administration argued that getting rid of the Flores agreement was a humane approach to the crisis of record Central American migration. According to DHS officials, some 390,000 family units have been caught at the border since last October.
"To protect these children from abuse, and stop this illegal flow, we must close these loopholes. This is an urgent humanitarian necessity," Trump said in a statement.
The new policy, which will be implemented in the next 60 days and is expected to be challenged in court, is the latest in a series of efforts by the administration to reduce migration.
McAleenan said the new rule would set better standards of care for detained families, holding them in "fundamentally different" facilities that would include community living rooms, classrooms, libraries and football fields.
But the American Academy of Pediatrics has repeatedly warned that detention is not suitable for children, as it can lead to negative physical and emotional symptoms and trauma.
Migrant and human rights advocacy groups decried the government's plan and accused authorities of mistreating migrants.
"This is yet another cruel attack on children, who the Trump administration has targeted again and again with its anti-immigrant policies," American Civil Liberties Union official Madhuri Grewal said.
Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said the move showed that the Trump administration's cruelty was boundless.
"Make no mistake: this new rule is about letting President Trump and Stephen Miller keep children in awful conditions for longer periods of time and continue the administration's horrid treatment of innocent migrant families fleeing unthinkable hardship."
jcg/sms (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)
What happens to immigrants once they leave US detention centers
Each day hundreds of immigrants to the United States are released from detention centers after having successfully crossed the fault line between the world's most powerful country and a region in crisis.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Free for now
Buses arrive throughout the day at the McAllen, Texas, bus station with immigrants released from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention centers and allowed to stay in the US while their cases are processed. Between October 2018 and March 2019, about 268,044 immigrants were detained at the border, according to US border authorities.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Handed over to volunteers
Once off the Homeland Security bus, immigrants wait for a border patrol agent to hand them over to a volunteer from the Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley (CCRGV). Due to the high number of families crossing the border and the scale of the humanitarian crisis overwhelming the US government, civilian organizations have mobilized to help immigrants at the Texas-Mexico border.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Organized chaos
At CCRGV's Humanitarian Respite Center, people can eat, shower and sort themselves out before traveling to friends or family who will host them while they await immigration court hearings. Up to 800 immigrants arrive at the center each day. "Neither political side in the US appears to have an answer," says Brianna Trifiletti, a helper at the center. "The solution has to come in Central America."
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Long road ahead
Once immigrants secure a bus ticket — typically bought by a contact in the US — they are taken back to the Greyhound station. Here volunteer Melanie Domingez uses a US map to indicate to immigrants — many of whom only speak an indigenous language — where they need to change buses. "It's busy but also rewarding as I was an immigrant once," Domingez says. "I feel it is my place to be here."
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Numbers behind the wall
East of McAllen, stretching for miles along the border, is a wall built in the 2000s. Then the number of immigrants apprehended at the border — mostly single men — averaged 81,550 per month. Now the average is 32,012 per month and the dilemma is a different one as those coming are mostly immigrant families with young children, who are harder to detain and process.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
River of division
The Rio Grande acts as the Texas portion of the US border with Mexico. "Every week I hear about another drowning," says Jennifer Harbury, who works with people fleeing violence in Central America. "A mother paid the smugglers to take her and three children across on a raft. It hit some turbulence and her two-year-old fell in. The boat man said, 'We don't stop mid-river,' as the child went under."
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
US measures to limit migrant flow
At the Mexican end of the International Gateway Bridge, which links the cities of Matamoros and Brownsville, immigrants check lists giving the order in which people will be allowed to cross and approach the US side. This so-called "metering" of immigrants is one of several new policies introduced by the Trump administration that many argue contravenes both US and international asylum laws.
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Economic migrants vs. asylum-seekers
At another bridge, a Nicaraguan mother and daughter wait, hoping they can claim asylum. One factor in the US immigration debate is whether those coming should get asylum, meant for people fleeing persecution rather than economic hardship. "I had a job as a civil engineer, but I still came here," says 27-year-old Erving from Nicaragua. "We are fleeing violence, it's not about trying to find jobs."
Image: DW/J. Jeffrey
Hope mingles with fear
Back at McAllen's Greyhound bus station, 9-year-old Valeria from Honduras waits for the bus that will take her and her family north. Immigrants tend to be in good spirits once they have rested and been fed at the CCRGV center. "But there is still fear," says a Honduran woman. "I don't know if after my court hearing I will be able to stay, or whether I will be deported."
