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 Under pressure from opposition Republicans to stem the
unprecedented flow of children earlier this year, the Obama
administration beginning in June pledged to speedily return them to
their home countries and help better secure borders in Mexico and
Central America.
But a third leg of that strategy has quietly created a network of
family detention centers to lock up some children and their parents
rather than freeing them pending deportation hearings.
The centers, which were opened this summer to receive families with
children, are in Artesia, New Mexico and Karnes, Texas. Another one
in Texas is scheduled to open in coming months. With little public
debate, they have effectively become flagships of the Obama
administration's "get tough" campaign to discourage future border
crossings.
These augment a Pennsylvania facility that has been in operation
since 2001, but holds only small numbers of people.
It represents a U-turn for the Obama administration, which for five
years favored less restrictive programs, such as ankle bracelets and
telephone check-ins, for keeping tabs on families while they awaited
court decisions on whether or not they would be deported.
 In 2012, the administration noted these programs saved "many
millions of dollars."
"The Obama administration in 2009 decided that it was going to turn
away from family detention ... the turn back is really alarming,"
said Carl Takei of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The White House referred briefly to "increased detainment" in a fact
sheet it issued on July 8 on an emergency funding request to
Congress. But the policy change, which immigration groups
characterize as a major shift for the administration, has not been
laid out in detail.
SIGNIFICANT EXPANSION
The big expansion of detention beds, from only 90 last year to about
3,700 by the end of this year, comes amid data showing that the
seasonal migration wave has receded. The number of families coming
over the border declined to 3,295 in August, from 16,329 in June.
"These (family detention) facilities will help ensure more timely
and effective removals that comply with our legal and international
obligations, while deterring others from taking the dangerous
journey and illegally crossing into the United States," a U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokeswoman said.
Human rights groups counter that the new policy is badly misguided.
Michelle Brane, director of a migrant rights program at the Women’s
Refugee Commission, said children, some of them infants and
toddlers, cannot be properly cared for in large detention centers.
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The policy shift on detention centers, which has not been debated
much in Congress, follows President Barack Obama's warning last
summer to illegal migrants from Central America that they would be
detained and promptly shipped back home if they attempted to make
the dangerous journey.
Immigration advocates argue that many of these children have valid
claims for asylum and flee to the United States because their
governments cannot protect them from both gang and domestic
violence. The detention centers are intended to discourage another
migrant wave that some fear will start early next year, said
Marshall Fitz, an immigration specialist at the Center for American
Progress, which has close ties to the White House.
March to June, when it is neither dangerously cold nor hot, have
been peak months for children, either traveling alone or with their
parents, to brave the journey to the U.S. border by foot and atop
trains.
"We could see the same thing come back again and I want to build
against that," Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson
said on Thursday.
POOR CONDITIONS
Advocacy groups and defense lawyers donating their services to
detainees complain of unsafe conditions, poor medical care and
inadequate access to lawyers at the government-run center in Artesia
and the Karnes facility, which is operated by the GEO Group, a
for-profit operator of prisons.
Responding to allegations of sexual assault at Karnes, ICE said the
agency was "committed to ensuring all individuals in our custody are
held and treated in a safe, secure and humane manner" and that it
has a "zero-tolerance policy for all forms of sexual abuse or
assault." GEO has denied the allegations.
A Department of Homeland Security inspector general report this
month said that while conditions in Artesia were improving, more
progress was needed.
Congress could weigh in on the new detention policy later this year
when it debates a bill to fund agencies administering the program.
(Additional reporting by Mica Rosenberg in New York, editing by Ross
Colvin)
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