The settlement terms of Flores v. Meese recognize that minors in the custody of the U.S. government possess liberty interests, thus prohibiting the use of prison-like settings for their custody and mandating their reunification with family members. In clear violation of this settlement and the Tentative Order issued by the judge, the federal government is currently detaining more than two thousand children and their mothers in Texas and Pennsylvania.
While some have argued for the improvement of prison conditions, the extended imprisonment of families in any context is unacceptable. Children in all three U.S. family detention centers have been provided with inedible food, grossly inadequate health care, and poor education in violation of state and federal child welfare laws. Abuses have included: coerced labor for pay of one dollar per day; denial of medical care to sick children, including a toddler who vomited blood for several days before receiving treatment; detention of a days-old infant; children forced into the foster system; prolonged detention, with some families having been detained for more than a year; and constant, pervasive harassment and threats to parents and children from prison staff and ICE officials. All families have been impacted by the psychological torture of detention and captivity, especially those who fled captivity by abusers to seek safety in the U.S..
Through misleading public statements and abuses of due process, the government and its contractors have created the illusion of care while imprisoning families long enough to achieve the primary objective of family detention: to deport as many refugee families as possible. This objective was announced by President Obama on June 25, 2014, when he sent a blanket message to Central American refugees to stop coming to the United States and that people would be sent back if they came here. This misguided attempt to deter other refugees from fleeing their home countries has led to the unlawful use of detention and a gross violation of due process rights for the very class of people the Flores settlement intended to protect.
We, the undersigned, represent community-based organizations and service providers across the nation who have served as the allies, advocates and legal representatives of these families throughout their ordeal. We urge the Federal Government, in anticipation of the final settlement and order of the Judge, to immediately release, from government detention, all children and their mothers, within 48 hours.
-- Pangea Legal Services;
-- Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services;
-- David Bennion, PLC, attorney for Children and Women at Berks;
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