The United States announced that it would revise its detention policies of immigrant families with children who enter the country illegally, amid mounting criticism towards the U.S. administration's migration policies.
“I have reached the conclusion that we must make substantial changes in our detention practices with respect to families with children,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in statement Wednesday.
“In short, once a family has established eligibility for asylum or other relief under our laws, long-term detention is an inefficient use of our resources and should be discontinued.”
Critics say that this a long overdue reform. In April, some 80 women who had immigrated to the U.S. and were being detained at a detention camp in Texas had launched a hunger strike, demanding their and their children's release from the center.
Those fleeing violence in El Salvador, Honduras & Guatemala & make it to US aren't illegal migrants.They're refugees. http://t.co/Tgs0rDplvg
— UNHCR Washington (@UNHCRdc)
June 24, 201
Also, hours after Johnson's announcement, several U.S. lawmakers told of the immigrants' hardships they had witnessed at two Texas detentions earlier this week.
A delegation of eight Democratic house representatives visited the detention centers in Karnes and Dilley Texas and told reporters that they met mothers and children that suffered from severe depression and who had incurred “terrible psychological damage” as a result of their prolonged incarceration in facilities similar to “jails for children”.
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“Our behavior toward these children – our taxpayer-funded incarceration – does not comport with American values, it does not comport with international law,” said congresswoman Zoe Lofgren.
Lofgren said that upon entering the Dilley detention center, at least 100 women “ran up to me holding their little toddlers, weeping, saying ‘please get us out of here’.”
While the delegation said it saw the administration’s announcement as a “step in the right direction”, they warned that more measures were needed to address the dire conditions in those centers, while some argued detentions should be shut down altogether.
“These facilities need to be closed, not expanded,” said Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer, who visited the Karnes Center on Monday. “The children in these centers have committed no crime ... They’ve complied with U.S. law. They’ve come and said we need refuge, we need safety, we need protection, not only from domestic violence but violence from gangs and from the governments themselves in the countries from which they’ve come.”
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Meanwhile, rights groups in Texas argued that Johnson’s offer to release migrant families on “reasonable and realistic bonds” lack a nuanced understanding of the plight of many migrants.
Mohammad Abdollahi of the San Antonio-based immigration group Refugee and Immigration Center for Education and Legal Services said what is appropriate bond release in the United States “may be out of reach for a single mother fleeing violence in Honduras.”
"When the secretary says folks are going to get reasonable bonds, and folks are going to get reasonable ways out of the facility, what does this actually look like for the families in detention?" Abdollahi said.
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