Judge Dolly Gee’s ruling over the weekend ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release 124 children from three migrant family jails by July 17 due to novel coronavirus concerns was “a step in the right direction,” advocates say, “but there’s a problem: the judge doesn’t have jurisdiction over the adults."
This means that federal immigration officials may yet again try to separate children from their parents in what advocates have called a “binary choice” even though it’s completely within ICE’s ability to release them together right now. This also means that ICE is refusing to immediately release children and their parents together as COVID-19 is hitting migrant family jails, just as advocates warned would happen.
BuzzFeed News reported last week that 11 people detained at GEO Group’s Karnes County Residential Center in Texas tested positive for COVID-19, becoming the first confirmed in-custody cases at such facilities. At South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, “some mothers and children have been placed in isolation after at least three staff tested positive for COVID-19,” Immigration Impact reported. “Three members of Congress may have also been exposed after a recent visit to the facility, which they called ‘a petri dish.’”
But despite Gee’s ruling order officials to release kids at “all deliberate speed”—“The family residential centers are on fire and there is no more time for half measures,” Gee wrote—NBC News’ Julia Ainsley reports “ICE says it is reviewing last night’s federal court decision to release children in family detention. This gives the Trump administration a July 17 deadline to decide whether they will release families together or seek an alternative, like family separation.”
“There is no justification for ICE to attempt to again separate children as young as infants from their parents,” advocacy groups said, nor is it humane or logical to release children by themselves to a sponsor when they should be released with their parent. “Similarly, there is no justification for ICE to keep parents detained at dangerous facilities while the ‘fire’ burns around them,” groups continued. So what do we do now? How do we keep families together in freedom? We get loud, advocacy group RAICES tweeted:
The organization has created an easy-to-use form to email members of Congress here, where you can demand that officials release families together. “Judge Gee only has authority over detained children under the Flores Settlement Agreement,” RAICES said. “And while we applaud Judge Gee’s decision, we are are worried ICE may use this court order to attempt to tear children away from their parents again. We cannot let this happen.”
“The children and parents held in family detention are not a flight risk or a danger to the communities where they plan to live with sponsors,” Immigration Impact continued. “They should be released together promptly to shelter in place at home and continue their asylum process in a non-detained setting.” Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tweeted: “Children should be released from ICE detention with their parents immediately. This is pretty simple, and I can't believe I have to say it: Families belong together.”