ICE out of room, sends immigrants to federal prisons
SEATTLE — More than 1,600 people arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border, including parents who have been separated from their children, are being transferred to federal prisons, U.S. immigration authorities confirmed Thursday. They said they’re running out of room because of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
The move drew condemnation from activists, who said the detainees might have legitimate claims to asylum and don’t deserve to be held in federal prisons.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson issued a letter Thursday night seeking more information from the Justice Department and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement after learning that ICE had transferred dozens of women who had been separated from their children to the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac, Washington.
“The Trump Administration’s new family separation policy is inflicting intentional, gratuitous and permanent trauma on young children who have done nothing wrong, and on parents who often have valid claims for refugee or asylum status,” they wrote.
Historically, immigrants who don’t have criminal records are released from custody while they pursue asylum or refugee status. The Trump administration has ended that policy.
In an emailed statement, ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell said that due to a surge in illegal border crossings and the Justice Department’s “zero tolerance” policy — designed to discourage illegal border crossings — the Homeland Security buses enter the federal correctional facility in Victorville, Calif., on Friday. More than 1,600 people arrested at the U.S.-Mexico border, including parents who have been separated from their children, are being transferred to federal prisons, U.S. immigration authorities confirmed Thursday. There are 1,000 beds available in this prison. agency needed to acquire access to more than 1,600 beds in Bureau of Prisons facilities. The agency said those include 1,000 beds in Victorville, California; 209 beds in SeaTac; 230 beds in La Tuna, Texas; 230 beds in
Sheridan, Oregon; and 102 beds in Phoenix.
The letter from Inslee and Ferguson followed a report from the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project earlier Thursday that as many as 120 asylum seekers had been transferred to the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac.
The organization said it spoke with two of them — women who arrived at the southern border with their young daughters in midMay seeking asylum. Both were separated from their children shortly after they were apprehended by Border Patrol. Instead of being returned to their children after being sentenced to time served for the misdemeanor of unlawful entry, they were transferred to Washington state while they seek asylum, the organization said.
“There is simply no moral or legal justification for separating children from their parents in this draconian effort seeking to deter other immigrants,” Matt Adams, legal director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, said in a written statement. “This is not only unlawful, but also contrary to basic human decency.”