Detained families could be released
Judge has set deadline for Homeland Security
WASHINGTON – Roughly 1,400 mothers, fathers and children locked up awaiting their asylum hearings could soon be released as the Department of Homeland Security works to comply with a scathing federal ruling against the Obama administration’s expanded use of family detention camps.
Advocates estimate that about 80 percent of the parents and children currently being detained at family detention facilities have been held for more than the roughly 20 days allowed by the ruling.
Judge Dolly Gee of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California has given the government until Oct. 23 to comply with her order, which requires officials to release children within five days. But she also provided an exception that allows officials to hold families for about three weeks under exceptional circumstances like last year’s surge of nearly 70,000 families from Central America.
Advocates fighting the policy praised the thrust of Gee’s ruling, which found that the administration violated a longstanding agreement on child detention. But they were disappointed about the wiggle room because the extra leeway will allow the government to keep open the controversial centers.
Department of Homeland Security officials indicate they’ll continue to operate close to the manner they’re currently running. More litigation is possible, as the language in the final order has raised questions about whether the government will be able to hold some mothers and children for longer periods of time.
Federal officials disagreed with the overall findings but added that the language inside the ruling confirms that steps being taken by the administration to cut the time spent at the family detention centers are in compliance with the order.
Gee found that the administration’s family detention policy violates an 18-year-old court settlement regarding the detention of migrant children. She described the conditions as “deplorable” and the government’s defense of the practice as “fear-mongering.”
But Gee’s order said children could be held for about three weeks under “extenuating circumstances,” like last year’s surge of Central American migrants.