Hundreds of migrant children held in US tent city for months
UNITED STATES: US authorities have held some immigrant children who entered the country illegally and without a parent in a temporary ‘ tent city’ in Texas for months, violating a 20-year- old court order on how long minors can be detained, according to court filings by civil rights lawyers and immigration advocates.
More than 500 children have been housed in tents near Tornillo, Texas since August, and 46 have been held there since June, according to a Friday court filing in Los Angeles federal court by civil rights organisations and advocacy groups representing migrant children.
The filing opposes a government request to exempt the Office of Refugee Resettlement ( ORR), which runs the tent city as a branch of the US Department of Health and Human Services ( HHS), from oversight by a courtordered monitor.
Under the terms of a 1997 court settlement known as the Flores agreement, US authorities must quickly move immigrant children out of prison- like detention centres, either releasing them to guardians or placing them in state-licensed shelters with access to schooling and legal counsel, generally within 20 days. Tornillo is not such a licensed facility.
The Tornillo tent city was opened in June as a temporary emergency measure as the number of children in ORR custody rose sharply.
Neither ORR nor the Department of Justice immediately responded to requests for comment.
In an Oct 12 fact sheet, HHS said the temporary shelter was necessary because of the number of unaccompanied minors in its care and so that “the Border Patrol can continue its vital national security mission to prevent illegal migration, trafficking, and protect the borders of the United States.”
The facility has 3,800 beds and housed about 1,500 children as of Oct 12, according to a government fact sheet. — Reuters