US in violation of court order

TENT CITY: HOUSING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT CHILDREN

More than 500 have been held in Tornillo, Texas, since August.

United States 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 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 court-ordered 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, 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 October 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 mission to prevent illegal migration, trafficking, and protect the borders of the United States”.

The tent city houses no children who were separated from parents. It has 3 800 beds and housed about 1 500 children as of Ocober 12, according to a government fact sheet. “None of the children at Tornillo were receiving schooling or regular mental health care, among other benefits to which they would be entitled if they were placed in a licensed shelter,” said a court filing from Leah Chavla, a human rights lawyer.

The administration of President Donald Trump has made cracking down on illegal immigration a central theme of his presidency. – Reuters

None of the children are receiving schooling.