Texas Judge Temporarily Blocks Two Texas Detention Centers from Being Licensed as Child Care Facilities
In July, a district judge ruled that the Obama administration’s family detention policies violated a 1997 settlement, which requires immigration authorities to either release undocumented minors or to put them in facilities licensed to care for children.
In response, the Texas Department of Family Protective Services issued an emergency rule, allowing two privately run detention centers to be formally licensed as child care facilities. The facilities were opened last year in response to the arrival of tens of thousands of mothers and children from Central America.
State officials have expressed concern that these licenses are a means for these detention centers to keep detaining children, despite the ruling in July.
Grassroots Leadership, an immigrant rights group that fights against the privatization of prisons and immigrant detention centers, filed a complaint last month, saying that the emergency licensing process was being fast-tracked and lacked proper procedure. Moreover, Grassroots Leadership is concerned that the emergency licensing process is in fact a means to bail out the private companies at a time when the federal government is under judicial order to end family detention in facilities that are not licensed to care for children.
After the initial hearing, a state district judge in Austin issued a temporary restraining order that prevents Texas from proceeding with its emergency licensing process. His actions have allowed more time to resolve the issue.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/immigrant-family-detention-texas_56295a93e4b0aac0b8fc58a8
The Debate Over Obama’s Plans to Bring in More Syrian Refugees and the Effects of the Paris Attacks on Those Plans
As Syrian refugees have flooded into Europe, President Obama has responded to calls to resettle more displaced Syrians. In September, he announced that his administration would admit at least 10,000 Syrian refugees over the course of the next fiscal year.
The announcement has sparked a variety of reactions from all sides of the spectrum. There are numerous voices who have praised the president for taking an important step in the right direction. There are others who claim that 10,000 is an embarrassingly small number and that given the scale of the Syrian refugee crisis, our history as a global leader in resettlement, and our leadership status in the global arena, we should be admitting scores more. Still others see the influx of Syrian refugees as a threat to national security, fearing we may inadvertently allow terrorists into the country.
In response, the Migration Policy Institute has released research that they hope will add to the discussion. The research examines refugee resettlement trends in the U.S. and makes predictions about what we can expect in terms of integrating the new Syrian arrivals.
But the brutal attacks in Paris last week have changed much in this debate. The number of people who support the idea that Middle Eastern refugees pose a threat to national security has increased and their voices have become much louder.
Recently, the House introduced and approved a bill that could create more entry hurdles for Syrian and Iraqi refugees fleeing war and terrorism.
In addition to the rigorous screening process that refugees currently go through, the new legislation would also require the FBI to conduct background checks on anyone coming to the U.S. from those countries. It would also require the head of the FBI, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, and the Director of National Intelligence to certify to Congress that each individual refugee is not a threat to national security.
It’s hard to say what the effect of these measures would be. There are some who say that this bill will suspend the admission process and create an even longer waiting period for refugees. Others believe that this bill won’t change very much, and that while it does create some extra hassles, it won’t overly extend the process.
The ultimate outcome of this bill is still far from decided. The vote still needs to go to the Senate and the President has announced that he plans to veto the bill, meaning that more votes will have to take place before this legislation is finalized.
Conditions in Immigration Detention Centers Are Traumatic
Immigrants coming from Central America are often fleeing extreme violence in their home countries. On their perilous journey to the U.S., many people encounter extortion and are threatened with the death of a loved one if they can’t pay their smugglers. Many witness murder, rape and other atrocities along the way.
Yet despite the horrors of the journey, immigrants who have been held in detention centers often claim that their experience in the detention center was far worse than the treacherous journey.
A new report released by the human rights group, Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC), found that conditions in U.S. immigrant detention centers are so miserable, that women and children are often forced to re-experience many of the traumas they fled from.
The initial holding area is often reported to be the most traumatic because that is where children are separated from their parents. UUSC’s report indicates that separation of children from their parents can be especially traumatic for parents who previously faced the possibility that their children would be kidnapped or murdered in their home countries. Confinement in a detention facility is also especially traumatic for people who were in hiding from gang members in their own countries. Moreover, many women report that their children are taken away from them if they don’t comply with ICE demands or if they complain about mental health issues.
Poor medical care is also an issue in the detention centers. It often takes hours to get medicine for sick individuals and in some cases, sick people remain unattended to.
Additionally, newly released migrants have reported that mothers and children are often poorly supplied with basic necessities like diapers, medicine, and feminine products.
Perhaps even more disturbing is that the government has paid approximately $2 billion annually for private prison operators to keep immigrants in detention. This economic incentive has caused immigrants to be treated more like commodities than like human beings who have experienced trauma.
These reports are part of a growing number of attacks launched against the Obama Administration for its treatment of Central American immigrants.
A report released by the National Immigrant Justice Center and Detention Watch Network found that during inspections, ICE often gives passing ratings for detention facilities with publicly reported human rights abuses.
http://thinkprogress.org/immigration/2015/10/22/3714518/uusc-mental-health-report-retraumatize/
Body Cameras for Customs and Border Protection agents
A new policy paper urges Customs and Border Protect (CBP) to use body cameras for agents and officers. CBP is the largest law enforcement agency in the country and has had more than 2,000 reports of misconduct over a seven year period. The hope is that body cameras would help to repair their image, as well as protect agents, officers, and the public alike.
The report gives a detailed analysis of the benefits of requiring body cameras as well as on the feasibility of implementing them and privacy concerns for the public.
Thus far, CBP has been slow to move on implementation of body cameras but the National Immigration Forum is urging them to move forward.
http://immigrationforum.org/blog/new-report-urges-body-cameras-for-customs-and-border-protection/
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