Mums, kids may be parted
Women and children crossing together illegally into the US could be separated by US authorities under a proposal being considered by the Department of Homeland Security, according to three government officials.
Part of the reason for the proposal was to deter mothers from migrating to the US with their children, said the officials, who have been briefed on the proposal.
The policy shift would allow the US government to keep parents in custody while they contest deportation or wait for asylum hearings. Children would be put into protective custody with the Department of Health and Human Services (DHS), in the ‘‘least restrictive setting’’, until they could be taken into the care of a US relative or state-sponsored guardian.
Currently, families contesting deportation or applying for asylum are generally released from detention quickly and allowed to remain in the US until their cases are resolved. A federal appeals court ruling bars prolonged child detention.
US President Donald Trump has called for ending this so-called ‘‘catch and release’’ approach.
Two of the officials were briefed on the proposal by US Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum chief John Lafferty at a meeting for asylum officers last month.
A third DHS official said the department was ‘‘actively considering’’ separating women from their children but had not made a decision.
US Representative Henry Cuellar, a Texas Democrat whose district includes about 320 kilometres of the border with Mexico, slammed the proposal.
‘‘Bottom line: separating mothers and children is wrong,’’ he said. ‘‘That type of thing is where we depart from border security and get into violating human rights.’’
About 54,000 children and their guardians were apprehended between October 1, 2016 and January 31, 2017, more than double the number caught over the same time period a year earlier.
Many parents who arrive at the US-Mexico border with their children have paid smugglers to guide them across the dangerous terrain.
Republicans in Congress have argued that women are willing to risk the dangerous journey with their children because they are assured they will be quickly released from detention and given court dates years into the future.
Immigrant rights advocates have argued that Central America’s violent and impoverished conditions force mothers to immigrate to the US, and that they should be given asylum status.
Implementing the new policy proposal ‘‘could create lifelong psychological trauma’’, said That type of thing is where we depart from border security and get into violating human rights. Marielena Hincapie, executive director at the National Immigration Law Centre. ‘‘Especially for children that have just completed a perilous journey from Central America.’’
Hincapie said the US government was likely to face legal challenges if it decided to implement the policy.
The policy would allow the DHS to detain parents while complying with a 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals order from July 2016 that immigrant children should be released from detention as quickly as possible. That order said their parents were not required to be freed.
To comply with the order, the Obama administration implemented a policy of holding women and children at family detention centres for no more than 21 days before releasing them.
Holding mothers in prolonged detention could also strain government resources, said Randy Capps of the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington-based non-profit group. ‘‘You are talking about a pretty rapid increase in the detention population if you are going to do this.’’
Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly last week ordered immigration agents to deport or criminally prosecute parents who facilitate the illegal smuggling of their children.