Family Detention
The Changing Face of Those Apprehended at the Southern U.S. Border
This week the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released the total number of apprehensions by the Border Patrol of individuals trying to enter the country without authorization for Fiscal Year (FY) 2016. The overall number of apprehensions is up from last year, but down when compared to FY 2013… Read More
Even the Government’s Own Advisory Committee Wants to End Family Detention
Calls to end the detention of immigrant children and their mothers seeking protection in the United States are not new. What is new is that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Advisory Committee on Family Residential Centers, created by DHS itself, has now added its voice to the chorus calling… Read More
Why “Family Detention” is a Misnomer
More than two years after the Obama Administration launched its aggressive expansion of family detention in an attempt to “deter” the arrival of asylum-seeking Central American families, numerous problems associated with such practice have been brought to light.One such issue is the separation of family units while… Read More
Why 22 Mothers Are On a Hunger Strike at the Berks Family Detention Facility
In protest of their families’ ongoing and prolonged detention in the Berks County Residential Center, a group of mothers began a hunger strike on Monday, August 8. They penned a letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson explaining why: We left our homes in Central America… Read More
Tracking Hillary Clinton’s Promises on Immigration Reform
By 2050, minorities will become the majority in the United States. This is the first point Hillary Clinton made while speaking before the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Washington D.C. this week. In a pointed speech, which she spent much of criticizing her opponent… Read More
Ninth Circuit Decision Should Prompt End to Family Detention
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday that the Flores Settlement (a 1997 agreement that set legal standards for the detention and release of immigrant children) applies to both unaccompanied and accompanied minors. The Court also found that neither Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) detention and release policies at existing… Read More
DHS and Immigration Courts Sued Over One-Year Asylum Deadline
Immigration law imposes a one-year deadline, beginning upon arrival in the United States, within which an asylum seeker must apply for asylum. With very limited exceptions, an individual who misses this deadline becomes ineligible for asylum. Even though the clock is ticking for these asylum seekers, DHS agents and officers… Read More
Latest Flores Filing Highlights Stories of Children and Mothers Unlawfully Detained by Obama Administration
This week, the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CHRCL) asked a federal judge to order the government to comply with the Flores settlement and appoint an independent monitor to oversee the Obama Administration’s ongoing family detention policy. Read More
Texas Judge Continues to Delay the Licensing of State Detention Centers as Childcare Facilities
On Friday, a Texas judge extended the temporary restraining order preventing Texas from licensing the Dilley detention center as a childcare facility. Dilley is one of two privately operated detention centers in Texas that house Central American mothers and children who fled violence and poverty in their home countries and are seeking protection in the United States. Read More
Mothers Held in Family Detention Centers Ask for Support from White House Mothers
Mothers who risked everything to flee horrific violence in their home countries, only to be held in immigration detention, gathered alongside advocates in front of the White House earlier this week in honor of Mother’s Day. The event, “Let Hope Bloom,” called on mothers in the administration to immediately visit… Read More
All gifts are matched dollar for dollar
No one should face the immigration system alone
