WASHINGTON – In a federal lawsuit on Friday night, Immigration and Customs Enforcement said it is moving family detention centers to short-term facilities that will release families after no more than 72 hours.
The disclosure of ICE, made in Flores’ lawsuit filed more than a decade ago on behalf of immigrant children, effectively suggests that the agency is ending the detention of families, a policy initiated by the Obama administration in 2014.
The Trump administration sought to expand family detention by detaining families for more than 20 days, a limit imposed by the judge in the Flores case.
As of Friday, only 13 families remained detained by the ICE, and seven were scheduled to be released on that day. The remaining six families are scheduled to be released on March 7, unless they have tested positive for Covid-19, in which case they are expected to remain for a quarantine period before being released.
At the beginning of the Biden government, ICE operated three detention centers for families: two in Texas, located in Dilley and Karnes counties, and one in Pennsylvania. As of February 26, all families in the Pennsylvania facility have been released, according to Friday’s filing.
The two Texas facilities will become short-term centers, while the Pennsylvania facility, Berks Family Residential Center, will no longer house families, the document said.
In an interview with NBC News on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said ICE detention “is not a place where the family belongs”.
Bridget Cambria, immigration lawyer for the non-profit organization Aldea – The People’s Justice Center, welcomed the disclosure of ICE as a victory for advocates, but said the agency’s family detention policy did not end until all facilities were closed .
“The removal of Berks’ parents and children is the result of years of defense, organization and litigation, all demonstrating that detaining families is immoral and inhumane, that arresting children for any length of time is harmful and, of course, that our community totally rejects the idea of a baby chain in our backyard, ”said Cambria, who says his organization has represented thousands of families detained in Berks since 2014.
She added: “However, we do not welcome any further incarceration of human beings in the custody of ICE in Berks. And the fight for family detention is not over until [the Department of Homeland Security] cancels its contracts with existing Texas family detention centers and closes Dilley and Karnes. “
NBC News previously reported that the Biden government planned to dramatically decrease the number of immigrant families under ICE detention, paving the way for an end to the family detention policy.
