Los Angeles Times
By Cindy Carcamo and Molly Hennessy-Fiske
August 7, 2015
Hundreds
of immigrant families remained locked up and in limbo this week after
attorneys for the Obama administration resisted a judge's order
concerning the increasingly
controversial family detention system the attorneys appear determined
to defend.
The
administration's latest response came after U.S. District Judge Dolly
Gee in Los Angeles in late July in effect ordered the release of all
children from family detention
centers, as well as mothers not deemed flight or national security
risks.
In
her ruling, Gee found that detaining children who immigrated illegally
with or without a parent at the centers violated standards set out in
the Flores vs. Meese settlement
in 1997. She called conditions at the centers “deplorable.”
Immigrant
advocates have filed complaints and lawsuits concerning medical and
legal services at the centers, and more than 170 House Democrats have
demanded they close.
“It's
disappointing that the administration continues to push to jail women
and children seeking asylum,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose), one of the
most outspoken congressional
opponents of the detentions, wrote in response to the government's
filing.
“The
writing is on the wall — family detention is unacceptable, un-American,
and will end. 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,” she wrote.
In
their response filed late Thursday night, Justice Department lawyers
urged the judge to reconsider her ruling, arguing that the facilities
had improved in recent weeks
and were being transformed into short-term “processing centers.”
U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which runs the family detention
centers with contractors, now aims to hold immigrants with credible
asylum claims no longer than
20 days, and most are being released within about two to four weeks.
This week, according to an ICE spokesman, about 1,400 parents and
children were being held at the country's three immigrant family
detention centers, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
Further
limits on family detention time or a shutdown, the government lawyers
said, “would heighten the risk of another surge in illegal migration …
by incentivizing adults
to bring children with them on their dangerous journey as a means to
avoid detention and gain access to the interior of the United States.”
In
another immigration case, a federal judge in Washington issued an
injunction in February barring the government from detaining immigrants
as a way of deterring other migrants.
More
than 68,000 family members were caught crossing the U.S.-Mexico border
last fiscal year. Some were apprehended while attempting to sneak into
the U.S., while others
surrendered to border enforcement officials and requested asylum, which
is within their rights under U.S. and international laws.
The
Justice Department attorneys asked for another chance to argue their
case before Judge Gee later this month, noting the “potentially
far-reaching scope of the remedies
proposed” in her ruling, which gave the administration 90 days to
comply.
Peter
Schey, one of the lead attorneys for the other side and president of
the Los Angeles-based nonprofit Center for Human Rights and
Constitutional Law, said they planned
to file a response to the government in a week and the judge was
expected to rule a week later, probably against the government.
“They
are requesting that the court completely rewrite the Flores settlement,
and they have no factual basis for that — there is no surge; there has
not been a surge for
quite some time,” Schey said, calling the government's position legally
and morally “indefensible.”
Laura
Lichter, a Denver-based immigration lawyer who has been volunteering at
the family detention center in Dilley, Texas, said the Justice
Department portrayed a “kinder,
gentler” form of family detention that doesn't match what she has seen,
even with recent policy changes and promised improvements.
“The
type of detention being described in this response simply doesn't
exist,” said Lichter, past president of the American Immigration Lawyers
Assn.
She
cited long-standing problems with legal, medical and other services
that have led to complaints and lawsuits by those in family detention.
“There
are continuing medical issues happening on a daily basis” at the
centers, Lichter said. “It is baffling that the government has dug in
and dug in so deep to this
process of detaining families.”
Gee
has indicated she plans to issue an injunction requiring the Department
of Homeland Security to adhere to the Flores settlement.
Such
a move is opposed by Mark Krikorian, executive director for the Center
for Immigration Studies, a Washington group that is fighting illegal
immigration and wants
more restrictions on legal immigration.
“The
judge is acting irresponsibly, in my opinion,” he said, “because the
government's ability to enforce immigration laws is at the core of …
sovereignty.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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