Critics blast Trump for border policing
SEATTLE — President Donald Trump’s enforcement of immigration laws has already led to overrun detention facilities and long lines of foreign nationals camping out at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Now, the administration is sending more than 1,600 immigrants — including some of those parents — to federal prison facilities amid a lack of space in other jails. The decision brought immediate denunciation from illegal immigration advocates.
The move comes as an increasing number of people have been coming to the border, further straining an immigration system that’s already at capacity. More than 50,000 people were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border in May alone — and courts, asylum officers and jails are struggling to keep up with the influx.
Under a new zero tolerance policy, parents who are criminally charged with illegal entering the country are separated from their children while in custody. The children are released to other family.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions said the policy of separating families is necessary to deter illegal border-crossings, and authorities say the decision to send people to prisons is a temporary one amid a shortage of beds.
“If you bring a child, it is still an unlawful act,” Sessions said in a speech in Montana this week. “You don’t get immunity if you bring a child with you. We cannot have open borders for adults with children.”
As Trump has ramped up enforcement, Congress continues to have little appetite for buying additional detention space — hence the crunch. In March, Congress agreed to fund 40,520 beds in immigration detention centers, an increase of 3 percent but a far cry from the administration’s roughly 40 percent surge in deportation arrests. The White House had sought money for more than 51,000 beds.
In a statement Thursday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell said the agency needed to acquire more than 1,600 beds in Bureau of Prisons facilities. Those include 1,000 beds in Victorville, California and 600 more in the Seattle area, Texas, Oregon and Phoenix.