Trump’s executive order officially calling for an end to separating migrant families on the border actually contains provisions laying the groundwork for the indefinite detention of intercepted migrants. Entitled “Temporary Detention Policy for Families Entering this Country Illegally,” it instructs the Secretary of Defense to provide “any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families” to the Department of Homeland Security—a clear reference to placing detained migrants in military bases. It also charges the Defense Department with responsibility to “construct such facilities if necessary…”
Ostensibly, the migrants are only to be detained “pending court proceedings for improper entry.” But no actual timeframe or maximum period is given. In fact, the crux of the order actually calls for removing limits on the period that children can he detained. The text instructs the Attorney General to “promptly file a request with the US District Court for the Central District of California to modify the Settlement Agreement in Flores v. Sessions, CV 85-4544 (‘Flores settlement’), in a manner that would permit the [Homeland Security] Secretary…to detain alien families together throughout the pendency of criminal proceedings…or any removal or other immigration proceedings.”
As the New York Times explains, the Flores settlement refers to a 1997 consent decree overseen by Judge Dolly M. Gee of federal district court in Los Angeles, which bars immigration authorities from keeping children in detention (with or without their parents) for more than 20 days. (The Flores case was first brought in 1985, and at the time of consent decree was designated Flores v. Reno.) So the cost of not separating the families seems to be indefinite detention. Judge Gee, an Obama appointee, is herself a daughter of Chinese immigrants. So a showdown between the White House and judiciary appears imminent.
The National Immigration Law Center states, “Trump Executive Order Makes Border Crisis Worse,” adding: “This order will likely have the effect of jailing, for months or even years, immigrant families seeking safety in the US.”
Trump’s move is a response to popular outrage at his policy—and, as seems likely, even the threat of ungovernability. On the same day as his order, ICE was forced to shut down its office in Portland, Ore., after protesters blocked the entrance. (Willamette Week)
In New York, protesters jammed a terminal at LaGuardia airport as several planes carrying detained migrant kids from Texas were touching down. American Airlines later issued a statement accusing ICE of deceiving them; airline officials were told the kids were being taken to be reunited with their parents when in fact they are headed for detention facilities in the metro area. The airline said it would stop cooperating in the program. (Daily News)
One of those metro-area facilities in the Cayuga Center in East Harlem, which generally holds kids pending placement with foster parents. It is currently housing 239 of the some 2,300 migrant children already separated from their parents—in this case, mostly Guatemalans. Mayor Bill de Blasio visited the Cayuga Center today, and while he said “[i]t looked like the kids were being treated very well,” he added that a number of the children arrived with physical problems, including lice, bed-bugs—and chicken-pox. (NBC New York)
Reports are mounting from around the country of the horrors of the child detention system. Children held at the Shiloh Treatment Center, a private facility south of Houston, Tex., described being held down and injected with tranquilizers against their will, according to a lawsuit filed by their families in federal court in California. Word of the abuse got out after some of the children were released and reunited with family, but it presumably continues for those still held at the facility. (Texas Tribune)
Martial arts instructor Antar Davidson quit his job at the Southwest Key shelter near Tucson, Ariz., after being ordered to enforce a “no-hugging” policy. He said the breaking point came when he was ordered to tell a traumatized and crying brother and sister from Brazil to stop embracing each other. Davidson is now speaking out in the media, saying he’d been placed in a position where he was being forced to do things he believed were “morally wrong.” (Here & Now, CNN)
And contrary to Trump’s claim about how everything’s copacetic when asylum-seekers cross legally, a PBS team reporting from Juárez-El Paso finds that asylum-seekers who attempt to cross the border at ports of entry are often turned away.
We warned upon Trump’s election that his rhetoric and cabinet appointments portended the establishment of concentration camps in the United States. We may now be poised precisely at that tipping point. The country’s future may depend on what transpires in the coming days in Judge Gee’s courtroom—and in the streets, public squares and airports coast to coast.
Photo: BBC World Service via Flickr
Hundreds of parents of detained children already deported
US District Judge Dana Sabraw gave the government "great credit" for reunifying more than 1,800 children 5 and over with parents or sponsors by the July 26 court-imposed deadline. But he pointed out that many of the families were reunited while in custody—and then turned his attention to 431 children whose parents have been deported.
"The government is at fault for losing several hundred parents in the process and that's where we go next," the judge said.
Sabraw ordered the government and the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the parents, to submit written updates every week on still-separated families.
Meanwhile, Judge Dolly M. Gee in Los Angeles said that she will appoint an independent monitor to evaluate conditions for immigrant children in US border facilities in Texas following a spate of reports of spoiled food, insufficient water and frigid conditions faced by the youngsters and their parents. (ABC)
Judge orders admin to halt drugging of detained children
District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles ordered that officials must get consent or a court order to give psychotropic medication to detained migrant children. The medications can still be given without permission under emergency circumstances.
Gee also ordered that migrant children be removed from a Texas facility where the drugs were administered, Shiloh Residential Treatment Center in Manvel, except for those found to be a danger to themselves or others. (The Hill)
565 migrant children remain in government custody
The latest numbers filed in court by the Trump administration showed that of the 2,654 immigrant children separated from their families at the border, 2,089 are now reunited with their parents or are have been placed with sponsors. But 565 other children remain in government custody, 24 of whom are under the age of 5. Also, the parents of 366 of those children have already left or were forced to leave the country.
Many had crossed the border illegally and in some cases were seeking asylum. The government provided 366 phone numbers for those parents who have already been deported. But Lee Gelernt, the lead attorney for the ACLU representing the separated families, said inoperative numbers were provided in a many cases. (PBS, Aug. 17)
Record 12,800 migrant children detained
Even though hundreds of children separated from their families after crossing the border have been released under court order, the overall number of detained migrant children has exploded to the highest ever recorded. Population levels at federally contracted shelters for migrant children have quietly shot up more than fivefold since last summer, according to data obtained by the New York Times, reaching a total of 12,800 this month. There were 2,400 such children in custody in May 2017. The huge increases, which have placed the federal shelter system near capacity, are due not to an influx of children entering the country, but a reduction in the number being released to live with families and other sponsors, the data collected by the Department of Health and Human Services suggests.
Most of the children crossed the border alone, without their parents. Many are teenagers from Central America, and they are housed in a system of more than 100 shelters across the United States, with the highest concentration near the southwest border.
The new data was reported to members of Congress, who shared it with the Times. It shows that despite the Trump administration’s efforts to discourage Central American migrants, roughly the same number of children are crossing the border as in years past. The big difference, said those familiar with the shelter system, is that red tape and fear brought on by stricter immigration enforcement have discouraged relatives and family friends from coming forward to sponsor children. (NYT)
Shelters holding nearly 15,000 migrant children near capacity
Government shelters holding immigrant children are about 92% full, according to a Department of Health and Human Services official, a sign that the backlog of those in detention has not abated. The number of migrant children in shelters fluctuates daily and thousands have been caught in a backlog that has some confined for many months.
As of Dec. 13, the number of unaccompanied children in 100 shelters across 17 states was about 14,700, agency spokeswoman Evelyn Stauffer told CNN. That's an increase from the 14,000 children that CNN reported in facilities at the end of November and a step closer to the network being at capacity. (CNN)
Federal immigration authorities have confirmed that a 7-year-old girl who crossed the US-Mexico border with her father last week died after being taken into the custody of the Border Patrol. The Washington Post reports the girl died of dehydration and shock more than eight hours after she was arrested by agents near Lordsburg, New Mexico. The girl was from Guatemala and was traveling with a group of 163 people who approached agents to turn themselves in. (PIX-11)