Trump administration resumes detention of immigrant families after
Biden-era pause
[March 13, 2025]
By VALERIE GONZALEZ
McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration resumed family detention
of immigrants last week in a South Texas facility after a Biden-era
pause, a legal nonprofit group providing services to migrant families
said Wednesday.
Fourteen immigrant families with children as young as one year old were
in the detention facility in Karnes County, Texas, about 50 miles (80.5
kilometers) southeast of San Antonio, according to RAICES, which
provides services to families at the center. The families are originally
from Colombia, Romania, Iran, Angola, Russia, Armenia, Turkey and
Brazil.
Faisal Al-Juburi, the organization’s chief external affairs officer,
said the families had been detained in the U.S. near the Mexican and
Canadian borders. Some were in the U.S. for as little as 20 days and
others for as long as about 10 years, Al-Juburi said. The nonprofit
provided service to adult detainees at the center prior to last week's
shift in the center’s detention population when the adult detainees were
moved out.
Both the Obama administration and Trump's first administration detained
families until their immigration cases played out. Trump severely curbed
asylum and forcibly separated children from their parents at the border
in a policy widely denounced as inhumane.
The practice of family detention was largely halted, but not abolished,
during the Biden administration, which briefly considered restarting it
in 2023.
U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement did not immediately respond to
an emailed request for comment Wednesday.
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Immigrants seeking asylum walk at the ICE South Texas Family
Residential Center, Aug. 23, 2019, in Dilley, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric
Gay, File)
Geo Group, the private corporation that operates the Karnes County
Immigration Processing Center, said the facility can hold up to
1,328 people in a statement issued Monday. It said its contract with
the federal government runs through August 2029 and will generate
about $79 million in revenue in its first year.
It's the second facility planned for family detention. Last week,
CoreCivic, a company that operates detention centers, announced it
entered into a contract with ICE to hold immigrant families at the
South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, with a
capacity of 2,400 people.
Immigration advocates expressed concern for the welfare of children
held in detention.
Dr. Alan Shapiro is a cofounder and chief strategy officer for Terra
Firma National, which works to provide immigrant children and
families access to healthcare and legal representation. Shapiro
visited family detention centers under the first Trump
administration and said detained children experienced behavioral
regression, anger and thoughts of self-harm.
“We also heard about suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts from
children in the facility themselves and other significant mental
health concerns, including self-harm and eating disorders that were
not present prior to detention," Shapiro said.
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