The Hill
By Mike Lillis
August 8, 2015
Democrats
on Capitol Hill are lashing out at the Obama administration over the
fate of thousands of illegal immigrant women and children being detained
after crossing
the southern border.
The
lawmakers have long-urged the administration to shutter the detention
facilities and move the detainees to less restrictive environments, and a
federal judge in California
recently agreed, ordering the centers to be closed.
But
the Justice Department late Thursday asked the judge to reverse that
decision, arguing that the centers deter illegal immigration and ensure
attendance at immigration
hearings. Closing the facilities, the administration warned, would
undermine the government's efforts to process current detainees,
discourage future migrants and secure the border.
That
response isn't sitting well with the Democrats, who say the centers are
not only illegal but inhumane, creating "prison-like" conditions that
pose mental and physical
health hazards to those being held. They're wondering why the
administration would push policies to discourage migrants fleeing
dangerous conditions at home.
Rep. Grijalva (D-Ariz.), head of the Progressive Caucus, added that
he's "appalled" that the administration would view continued detentions
as a means to combat illegal
immigration.
"While
DHS claims that they have made changes to their policies, we cannot
continue to jail women and children who express credible concerns of
harm in their native country,"
Grijalva said in a statement.
"The Obama administration is flat out wrong on this, and they're going against the laws and values of our nation."
House
Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) piled on, with a spokesperson
amplifying her previous calls to close the facilities immediately.
"Leader
Pelosi believes it is long past time to end family detention," said
Evangeline George. "Family detention centers are inappropriate for
jailing refugee children
and mothers fleeing persecution and violence."
Rep.
Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, said he was "disappointed by
the Justice Department's response" and wanted the facilities closed.
"The
individuals being detained with their children have committed no crime
under our laws and are seeking asylum. They ought to be treated with
compassion," he said in
a statement.
The
debate over the detention centers has swirled in Washington since the
Homeland Security Department (DHS) expanded the facilities in response
to the migrant surge last
summer, when tens of thousands of illegal immigrants –– many of them
unaccompanied children –– flooded the southern border. The torrent
quickly swamped the border authorities, who scrambled for ways to
detain, process and, in many cases, deport the migrants
back home.
The
largest of the centers both reside in Texas: The Karnes County
Residential Center is a 532-capacity facility in Karnes City; the South
Texas Family Residential Center,
is a 2,400-capacity facility in Dilley.
A third center, in Berks County, Pa., houses almost 100 more illegal immigrants awaiting legal processing.
Last
month, a U.S. District Court in California ruled that holding the
families for long stretches without criminal charges violates a
decades-old accord, known as the
Flores Agreement, that set guidelines for the detention of illegal
immigrant children.
Judge
Dolly M. Gee cited the "egregious conditions of the holding cells" in
finding that the administration failed to meet the "safe and sanitary"
requirements established
under Flores. She ordered the facilities closed unless the
administration could show good cause why they should remain open.
"With
respect to the overcrowded and unhygienic conditions of the holding
cells, all that Defendants have done is point to their own policies
requiring sufficient space,
an appropriate number of toilets, and regular cleaning and sanitizing,"
Gee wrote. "The mere existence of those policies tells the Court
nothing about whether those policies are actually implemented, and the
current record shows quite clearly that they were
not."
The
DOJ filed its response Thursday evening, arguing that Gee's order would
limit family detentions to between three and five days –– a window that
would "functionally
terminate the ability of DHS to place families into expedited removal
or reinstatement proceedings."
"Similarly,
if bed space is even further reduced as a result of the court’s order,
CBP [Customs and Border Protection] believes this may result in longer
detention at
Border Patrol facilities and greater numbers of individuals attempting
to cross the border unlawfully," the agency added. "Taken together, the
proposed Order would greatly impact DHS’s operational capacity and its
ability to secure the borders while facilitating
lawful trade and travel."
In
June, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson acknowledged the need for
"substantial changes" in detainee policy, adopting a series of reforms
that included the release
of families who show evidence of "credible or reasonable fear of
persecution" at home and an effort to lower bond requirements to
"reasonable and realistic" levels.
DHS
cites statistics that 60 percent of all families detained at the border
are released within two to four weeks, and the agency is moving to
close that window even further.
A DHS spokesperson said Friday that, given the reforms, the facilities
should be allowed to remain open.
"The
government has never interpreted the 1997 Flores settlement, which
settled a case involving detention of unaccompanied minors, to also
apply to the use of family
residential facilities," the spokesperson said in an email.
"DHS
remains concerned that if required by the Court to release all families
seeking to illegally enter the United States –– including those who do
not establish eligibility
for relief or protection from removal –– another notable increase in
the numbers of adults attempting to cross the border with children may
ensue.”
The
saga has flipped the partisan politics of Washington in its head, with
President Obama siding with some of his sharpest Republican critics
while liberal Democrats
are attacking their close ally in the White House.
Rep.
Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent a
letter to Johnson last week urging the administration to mount a
"vigorous" defense against
the court order.
"The
Court’s decision, if left to stand, will essentially end the detention
of family units," Goodlatte wrote. "This will no doubt lead to large
increases in the already
excessively high numbers of aliens surging across the southwestern U.S.
border and failing to appear for their removal proceedings."
Democrats,
however, are left unconvinced. They want the administration to accept
the court's ruling and release the detainees to less-stringent
conditions.
"The
overwhelming evidence shows that detention facilities are harmful to
the health and well-being of children, and the facts show that these
asylum seekers will show
up for their immigration hearings if they are placed in alternatives to
jail," Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) and
Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.) said Friday in a joint statement.
They said the court's ruling makes closing the detention centers inevitable.
“The
writing is on the wall –– family detention is unacceptable,
un-American, and will end," the lawmakers added. "Rather than fight the
court’s ruling, the right and
moral response is to swiftly take the necessary steps to bring our
nation’s detention policy in line with the Flores settlement agreement.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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