Complaint: ICE Illegally Detaining Migrant Kids Indefinitely
A complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security’s civil rights office on Wednesday alleges that Immigration and Customs Enforcement is indefinitely holding five immigrant fathers and their young children in a South Texas detention center, in violation of a settlement agreement that bars the government from holding undocumented kids for longer than 20 days.
The boys—the youngest of whom is just five years old—have been detained at ICE’s Karnes County detention center for between 41 and 58 days, according to the complaint filed with DHS’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties by the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services (RAICES), an immigrant rights group. The 1997 Flores agreement forbids the federal government from detaining undocumented children for longer than 20 days without releasing them into the custody of a sponsor and established standards of care for undocumented minors in federal custody.
“There is no reason to detain these fathers and their children in the first place, and their continued detention is is an egregious violation of rules meant to protect children,” said William Fitzgerald, a spokesperson for RAICES. “These families could easily be released to friends and relatives in the United States, where the fathers could navigate the asylum process and the children could receive adequate care and education. Instead, they are locked up and suffering every day.”