The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Family detention centers pivot to rapid processing
The Biden administration is preparing to convert its immigrant family detention centers in South Texas into Ellis Islandstyle rapid-processing hubs that will screen migrant parents and children with a goal of releasing them into the United States within 7
Why it matters
The plans show the Biden administration is racing to absorb a growing number of migrants crossing the U.s.-mexico border amid shortages of bed space and personnel. Republicans and some Democrats fear that relaxing detention policies will exacerbate a surge that is already straining the Biden administration.
On Wednesday, senior ICE official Russell Hott notified staff of the rapid-processing plan in an email that said arrivals by unaccompanied minors and families this year “are expected to be the highest numbers observed in over 20 years.”
If U.S. border officials continue to take in more than 500 family members per day, the change in use to the family detention centers “may not be sufficient to keep pace with apprehensions,” Hott warned in his email, which was reviewed by The Washington Post.
Individuals who cannot be housed in one of the rapid-processing centers may need to be placed in hotels, Hott wrote. An ICE contractor, MVM, will help transport the families to hotels if there is no longer capacity at the rapid-processing centers, he said, adding that the company plans to use hotels in Mcallen, El Paso and Phoenix.
What it means
Transforming family detention amounts to a wholesale repudiation not only of Donald Trump administration policies but also those of former president Barack Obama, and presents a significantly different vision of how to handle the fast-changing character of mass migration at the southern border.
For decades, single adults — particularly men — dominated the flows northward into the United States, but the number of families and minors traveling without their parents has increased substantially in recent years.
During the Obama and Trump administrations, most families were quickly released or deported. But some were held in dormitory-style facilities for weeks or months for immigration proceedings. Advocates for these families have long said they shouldn’t be detained at all — a sentiment that Joe Biden echoed on the campaign trail last year.
Six weeks into Biden’s presidency, advocates are frustrated his administration has continued to detain families and expel them from the border under a public health order. The number of detained family members more than doubled, from 228 adults and children before Biden took office to 476 last week.
What’s next
The Biden administration has said it is reviewing the way it uses family detention facilities, but told a federal judge last week in a lawsuit over the detentions that the policies had not changed. But DHS officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe the unpublicized plans, said the transition to rapid-release centers is already underway.