Controversy Over Practice Of Indefinitely Detaining Immigrants Hasn’t Dissuaded Trump
The Trump administration wants to expand the system of facilities where migrant families can be incarcerated for months or longer, despite the fact that numerous health experts have warned that detaining children for such lengths of time, even with their parents, can cause permanent psychological damage. In other news on the immigration crisis: accusations surround a death of a teen in U.S. custody; a suit against immigration pilot programs, and a ruling on the "public charge" rule.
The New York Times:
Despite Warnings, Trump Moves To Expand Migrant Family Detention
On a burning hot day last summer at the South Texas Family Residential Center, a federal detention facility for immigrant families, Kenia and her son, Michael, 11, were hunched over a foosball table in an air-conditioned recreation room when Michael dropped to the floor and started sobbing. He curled his body into a ball and writhed as if he were in pain. The other parents and children in the room looked up from their jump ropes and boomboxes as Kenia knelt down and pleaded into Michael’s ear: Would he please go back to their room before the guards noticed him? (Dickerson, 12/9)
ProPublica:
House Chairman Says Trump Administration Misled Congress On Boy’s Death In Custody
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee accused the Trump administration of misleading Congress and the public about the death of a 16-year-old boy in Border Patrol custody, and he urged a swift completion of an internal investigation. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said a report by ProPublica on the May 20 death of Carlos Gregorio Hernandez Vasquez “calls into serious question the steps U.S. Customs and Border Protection claims to have taken to care for a child in its custody.” (Moore, 12/6)
Texas Tribune:
ACLU Files Suit To Stop Immigration Pilot Programs
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit Thursday to stop two U.S. immigration pilot programs that the group alleges strip asylum seekers of their legal rights and instead fast-track them for deportation back to violent countries. The Prompt Asylum Claim Review and the Humanitarian Asylum Review Process, programs that began in El Paso, deny immigrants access to adequate counsel before their interviews with asylum officers, the ACLU of Texas; ACLU of Washington, D.C.; and ACLU national office allege in the filing. The PACR program generally applies to non-Mexicans, and HARP affects Mexican asylum seekers. (Aguilar, 12/6)
San Francisco Chronicle:
Court Would Allow Denial Of Legal Status To Noncitizens Receiving Benefits
A federal appeals court says the Trump administration’s decision to deny legal status and work permits to noncitizens who accept public benefits, like food stamps or Medicaid, appears to be within the government’s legal authority to prefer immigrants who are self-sufficient and should be allowed to take effect while being challenged in court. The ruling late Thursday by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, suspending injunctions issued in October by judges in Oakland and Washington state, has no immediate effect, because judges in New York and Maryland have issued separate orders blocking the administration’s rule. (Egelko, 12/6)
