Family detention

Family detention is the detention of multiple family members together in an immigration detention context. The places where it is done have been alternatively called family detention camps[1] or family detention centers[2] or family detention facilities[3] by different sources.

History

In 2014 the Obama administration opened new family detention centers in the United States. At the time there was only one government-operated facility, which was located York County, Pennsylvania.[4]

In 2015, intact families were not regularly separated at the United States border.[5]

In February 2016, the designation Family Unit Aliens or FMUA was introduced.[6] The majority of families apprehended at the border were not linked to fraud according to an official within U.S. Customs and Border Protection.[7]

In July 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court's decision (in July 2015, by Judge Dolly Gee) to quickly release child migrants from family detention even when accompanied by a parent.[8]

In 2017 and 2018, the number of family units (groups of at least one adult and at least one child) from Guatemala and Honduras apprehended by the U.S. increased, as families fled gang violence and instability in Central America.[7]

Family detention centers in the United States

The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts with several facilities to detain families with children. The General Accounting Office reports that the 3 active facilities have a combined capacity of 3,326 people.[9] Active family detention centers include:

  • South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas. This privately-owned center is operated by CoreCivic (formerly the Corrections Corporation of America).[10] The facility can hold 2,400 people and had 2,000 inmates in early June 2018.[11]
  • Berks County Residential Center in Leesport, Pennsylvania. This county-operated facility opened in 2011.[12] Currently a 96-bed facility, it can potentially hold 200 people. It was 59% full in early June 2018.[13]
  • Karnes County Residential Center (KCRC) in Karnes City, Texas. This privately-operated center is run by the GEO Group. The facility opened in 2012, and was designated a family residential unit in 2014.[14] The facility can hold 830 people and was 66% full in early June 2018.[15]

Former family detention facilities

Former family detention centers include:

  • T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas. This privately-owned center is operated by CoreCivic (formerly the Corrections Corporation of America).[16][17] The facility opened in May 2006, and housed 400 immigrants including 170 children in February 2007.[18] ICE used the facility for family detention until 2009. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit in Federal court objecting to conditions at Hutto. Under terms of a 2009 settlement, ICE no longer holds children at Hutto, but continues to detain adult immigrant women at the facility.[19]
  • Artesia Family Residential Center in Artesia, New Mexico. A government-operated facility on the premises of the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center that operated from June 2014 to December 2014, with space for 700 people.[20] On November 20, 2014, the government announced it would transfer remaining detainees to the center in Karnes City, Texas.[21] During the facility's operation, the Department of Homeland Security implemented a "no bond or high bond" strategy to make it difficult for women to leave the facility while awaiting immigration hearings.[21]

Proposed family detention facilities

Executive Order 13841, signed on June 20, 2018, instructs that, "The Secretary of Defense shall take all legally available measures to provide to the Secretary, upon request, any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families, and shall construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law."[22] On June 21, the Department of Health and Human Services requested facilities to house migrant children. Pentagon spokesmen and a memorandum sent to Congress confirmed that the Department of Defense was preparing facilities at four military bases in Texas and Arkansas to house 20,000 "unaccompanied alien children."[23]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Shame of America's Family Detention Camps". New York Times. 4 February 2015.
  2. ↑ "Inside the migrant family detention center in McAllen, Texas". USA Today. 17 June 2018.
  3. ↑ "Immigrant kids seen held in fenced cages at border facility". Seattle Times. 18 June 2018. a family detention facility in McAllen, Texas
  4. ↑ "Administration to open detention centers for families caught crossing the border". pbs.org. 20 June 2014. The administration did not immediately say how many people the new family detention centers will house or where they will be located. The government currently operates only one such facility, in York County, Pennsylvania, with space for fewer than 100 people.
  5. ↑ LaCapria, Kim (18 June 2018). "Was the 'Law to Separate Families' Passed in 1997 or 'by Democrats'?". snopes.com. The rumors correctly suggested that “family detention” as a whole came before the Trump administration, but as of August 2015 intact families at the border were rarely separated.
  6. ↑ Vitiello, Ronald (23 February 2016). "The Unaccompanied Children Crisis: Does the Administration Have a Plan to Stop the Border Surge and Adequately Monitor the Children?". Apprehensions of Family Unit Aliens (FMUA), consisting of children who are apprehended with one or more parent or legal guardian, were approximately 68,445 in FY 2014; in FY 2015, CBP apprehended over 39,838. FMUA generally kept together unless one member of the family group is deemed harmful to another member.
  7. 1 2 Kates, Graham (20 June 2018). "Migrant children at the border – the facts". CBS News. Between October 2017 and May 2018, 99.75 percent of family units apprehended by at the border were not linked to fraud (i.e. pretending to be a parent). A Customs and Border Protection official said Tuesday that out of 59,113 total family unit apprehensions during that period, there were 148 cases of alleged fraud.
  8. ↑ Carcamo, Cindy (6 July 2016). "U.S. must release child migrants held in family detention, court says". latimes.com. President Obama's immigration policy was dealt another blow Wednesday when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's opinion that child migrants who are accompanied by a parent and currently in family detention should be quickly released. It left the fate of the parents up in the air, however. The case centers on a 1997 legal settlement — known as the Flores agreement — that set legal requirements for the housing of children seeking asylum or in the country illegally. ee In July 2015, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles found the government had violated key provisions of the court settlement that put restrictions on the detention of migrant children.
  9. ↑ United States Government Accountability Office (2018). IMMIGRATION DETENTION: Opportunities Exist to Improve Cost Estimates (PDF). p. 18.
  10. ↑ "South Texas immigration detention center set to open". 15 December 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2014.
  11. ↑ "Feds don't have enough beds for migrant families". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  12. ↑ "Inside Pa.'s ICE Immigrant Family Detention Center". NBC 10 Philadelphia. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  13. ↑ "Feds don't have enough beds for migrant families". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  14. ↑ "Here's where immigrant families in Texas could be housed after Trump's executive order". Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  15. ↑ "Feds don't have enough beds for migrant families". POLITICO. Retrieved 2018-06-22.
  16. ↑ "Facility Locations List". Corrections Corporation of America. Archived from the original on 2007-11-11. Retrieved 2007-12-06.
  17. ↑ Don Hutto Family Residential Facility Archived 2011-06-22 at the Wayback Machine.
  18. ↑ Blumenthal, Ralph (February 10, 2007). "U.S. Gives Tour of Family Detention Center That Critics Liken to a Prison". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-06-21.
  19. ↑ Kravets, Lauren (2017-12-04). "After sex abuse claims at T. Don Hutto detention facility, advocates want answers". KXAN. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  20. ↑ Caldwell, Alicia A. (November 18, 2014). "U.S. to close immigrant detention center in Artesia". The Santa Fe New Mexican. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  21. 1 2 Hylton, Wil S. (February 4, 2015). "The Shame of America's Family Detention Camps". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
  22. ↑ "Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation". The White House. Retrieved 2018-06-20.
  23. ↑ Shear, Michael; Cooper, Helene; Benner, Kate (June 21, 2018). "U.S. Prepares to House Up to 20,000 Migrants on Military Bases". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-06-24.
  24. ↑ "Migrant Detainees to Be Housed at 2 Texas Military Bases". Military.com. 2018-06-25. Retrieved 2018-06-25.
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