I don't think you read the link, did you? This is the very reason trump was separating the children because the Court ruled locking up kids in prison is inhumane...the tactic Obama implemented to frighten immigrants seeking asylum.
The simple solution is to have congress fund more judges as well as release the parent(s) with GPS ankle bracelets...which congress is loathe to fund. And, if you listened to Obama's ICE director, this was his suggestion. Obama chose instead to use inhumane intimidation tactics.
December 16, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT: 212-549-2666, media@aclu.org
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a nationwide class-action lawsuit challenging the Obama administration's policy of locking up asylum-seeking mothers and children to intimidate others from coming to the United States.
The case was brought on behalf of mothers and children who have fled extreme violence, death threats, rape, and persecution in Central America and come to the United States for safety. Each has been found by an immigration officer or judge to have a "credible fear" of persecution, meaning there is a "significant possibility" they will be granted asylum.
Yet, instead of releasing these families as they await their asylum hearings, which the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has typically done, the agency now categorically detains and denies their release on bond or other conditions. The Obama administration adopted this policy — "an aggressive deterrence strategy" — following this summer's increase in mothers and children coming to the United States.
"Locking up families and depriving them of their liberty in order to scare others from seeking refuge in the U.S. is inhumane and illegal," said Judy Rabinovitz, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project. "The government should not be using these mothers and their children as pawns. They have already been through devastating experiences, and imprisoning them for weeks or months while they await their asylum hearings is unnecessary and traumatizing."
The Obama administration's blanket no-release policy is a violation of federal immigration law and regulations, as well as the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which prohibit the blanket detention of asylum seekers for purposes of general deterrence, the complaint charges.
The lawsuit aims to invalidate that policy and ensure that the families’ cases receive individualized reviews. Asylum-seeking mothers and children are being detained at facilities across the country, in places such as Karnes, Texas, and Berks County, Penn. The nation's largest family detention facility just opened in Dilley, Texas.
"I worry that every day my family is kept in prison it adds to the trauma that my children feel. They saw so much violence in El Salvador, and now they are locked up here where they cannot feel safe and get better. I hope that we can be released soon so that I can help them recover from everything they have experienced," said lead plaintiff "RILR," who has been locked away in detention with her two children. |
