Immig regs ripped
AGs: Hard-line policy keeping kids locked up
Twelve state attorneys general, including New York’s Barbara Underwood, demanded Thursday that the Trump administration immediately end an “inhumane” policy that is keeping migrant children detained even though they could be released to relatives or sponsors living in the U.S.
Underwood, along with the AGs of Massachusetts, California, Delaware, Washington, D.C., Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Vermont, Virginia and Washington, made the demand in a sharply worded letter addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Health and Humans Services czar Alex Azar.
“This policy has only caused traumatized children to suffer further harm through unnecessary and prolonged federal custody,” the AGs said, citing research concluding that such detention can have a “traumatic” impact on children, “with effects ranging from anxiety and depression to suicidal ideation and complex behavioral problems.”
The policy in question was implemented by the administration in May and imposed rigorous requirements for U.S. residents hoping to sponsor migrant kids who have entered the country unaccompanied.
Contrary to previous administrations, the new policy demands that prospective sponsors submit to fingerprinting and background checks. That information is in turn shared with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.
“In cases where prospective sponsors come forward, they must navigate costly bureaucratic hurdles that have delayed the process of releasing children from custody,” the AGs said. “In other cases, potential sponsors are unwilling to come forward at all, often fearing enforcement action and removal from the country for themselves or their household members.”
Moreover, the state law enforcement officials said the policy was implemented without any evidence that it would actually “make children safe.” In fact, the AGs said, the true motive of the policy appears to be “to detain and deport prospective sponsors rather than finding loving homes for children.”
A Health and Human Services spokeswoman confirmed the department had received the letter and promised to respond.
We treat our “responsibility for each child with the utmost care,” said a spokeswoman for the Office of Refugee Resettlement. “Our focus is on the best interest of each and every child from placement in the most appropriate shelter to identifying and releasing the child to the most suitable sponsor in the U.S.”
Spokesmen for the Homeland Security department did not return requests for comment.
As a consequence of the policy, the number of children in detention has skyrocketed. The AGs said there are currently 13,000 unaccompanied migrant children in federal custody — a fivefold increase compared with the same time last year.
Facing capacity issues at its crowded detention centers, the administration has moved to constructing a “tent city” near the Tornillo port of entry on the Texas border with Mexico.
“Described as prison camp-like, the Tornillo facility isolates children in the middle of the desert in 20person tents with militarystyle bunk beds,” the AGs said.
The sponsorship policy is just one of many hard-line directives President Trump has implemented since taking office that are aiming to curtail legal as well as illegal immigration.