AP
August 7, 2015
The
U.S. government has asked a federal judge to reconsider her ruling
calling for the immediate release of children and their mothers caught
entering the U.S. illegally
from Mexico, saying recent changes mean federal authorities are no
longer violating a ban on holding immigrant children in secure
facilities.
In
late July, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee ordered the release of all
children from immigrant family detention centers "without unnecessary
delay," along with any mothers
not deemed a flight or national security risk.
Justice
Department lawyers late Thursday filed documents at the California
Central District Court urging Gee to not implement her decision, saying
the Department of Homeland
Security intends to turn the centers into short-term processing
facilities that her ruling "addressed practices and policies that no
longer exist."
The
government says detention time has been reduced to only a few weeks for
most families, and that reducing it further would hinder processing
asylum claims and could
force the separation of mothers from their children in the event of
another wave of migration.
Moreover,
further limits on detention "would heighten the risk of another surge
in illegal migration," the filing said, "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."
The
government asked for another chance to argue its case before the judge,
citing the "potentially far-reaching scope of the remedies proposed,"
and the short time —
90 days — it would have to put them in place.
Laura
Lichter, a Denver immigration lawyer working with detained families,
said the government had "doubled down" on family detention, and is
"enamored of it as a tool,
even though a judge has called it both illegal and ineffective."
Homeland
Security spokeswoman Marsha Catron said the agency has asked to the
judge to reconsider, "taking into account the current legal landscape
and considerable changes
we have already made to address the situation."
The
government poured millions of dollars into two large detention centers
in Texas for women and children after tens of thousands of immigrant
families, mostly from Central
America, crossed the Rio Grande into the U.S. last summer. Many have
petitioned for asylum after fleeing gang and domestic violence back
home.
The
centers in Karnes City and Dilley, both south of San Antonio, currently
hold some 1,400 women and children combined, down from more than 2,000
in June. A third, smaller
facility is located in Berks County, Pennsylvania. All three are
overseen by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement but managed by
private prison operators.
In
her ruling, Gee found that detaining children violated parts of a 1997
settlement from another case barring immigrant children from being held
in secure facilities.
She said the settlement covered all children in the custody of
immigration officials, even those who entered the country illegally with
a parent, and that the facilities were not properly licensed to care
for children.
Some 38,000 children arrived with their mothers on the border during the 2014 fiscal year.
Immigration
authorities have vowed to make the detention facilities more
child-friendly and to provide better oversight. Homeland Security and
ICE officials say they are
looking to release families as soon as they pass the interviews that
are the first hurdle to being granted asylum.
In
Thursday's filing, lawyers for the government argued that ICE now aims
to detain families no longer than 20 days and that most are being
released within about two weeks.
Last year the majority of families spent more than a month in
detention, and some were detained several months.
In
recent weeks, more mothers have been released with their children.
Bonds have been drastically reduced, and many of the women have been
fitted with electronic ankle
monitors, according to immigrant rights lawyers.
More
than 170 House Democrats have asked Homeland Security to close the
facilities. Immigrant rights advocates have filed two complaints
demanding investigations into
the centers.
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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