In the summer of 2014, with an increase in the number of mothers and children fleeing violence and persecution in Central America, the Obama Administration returned to the widely discredited and costly practice of family detention. In this report, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) and the Women’s Refugee Commission (WRC), have collaborated to show the harm family detention causes and outline sensible alternatives.
Full Report | Executive Summary
In 2009, the Obama Administration closed what then was the United States’ largest family immigration detention facility after years of controversy, media exposure, and a lawsuit. Conditions at T. Don Hutto Family Detention Facility, and the impact of detention on families and children, proved that family detention could not be carried out humanely. In the summer of 2014, with an increase in the number of mothers and children fleeing violence and persecution in Central America, the Administration has returned to this widely discredited and costly practice.
The findings in Locking Up Family Values, Again are informed by our tours of the Artesia and Karnes facilities as well as interviews with facility and government officials, detained families, and legal and social service providers. Much like in our 2007 report, Locking Up Family Values, our findings again illustrate that large-scale family detention results in egregious violations of our country’s obligations under international law, undercuts individual due process rights, and sets a poor example for the rest of the world.
Locking Up Family Values, Again documents that most of the families detained – such as 98% at the Karnes facility based on September 2014 statistics – are seeking protection in the United States. The average age of children in the government’s Artesia facility as of October 2014 was six years old.
In addition to inadequate access to child care, medical and mental health care, and legal assistance, we find that family detention remains as rife for abuse. In October 2014, the Karnes facility was at the center of allegations of sexual assault by guards threatening or bribing detained women. In another example, a detained young mother at a family facility was suddenly accused of abuse, torn apart from her two small children and transferred to an adult facility without explanation or information on her children’s welfare or whereabouts.
Our conclusion is simple: there is no humane way to detain families. This report recommends that the government close Artesia and Karnes and halt plans for opening a new facility, improve its screening procedures, and revise its policy of no or high bonds for families. The report calls on the government to implement the vast array of cost-effective alternatives to detention that are successful in ensuring participants appear for scheduled court hearings.
KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
Learn more about family detention of immigrants here.