Women and children illegally entering the US from Mexico together could be separated if caught — a proposal under consideration by the Department of Homeland Security to deter border crossings, a new report said Friday.
The Trump administration plan, if adopted, would let authorities keep parents locked up while they fight deportation or wait for asylum hearings.
The kids would be put in protective custody with the Department of Health and Human Services in the “least restrictive setting” until they can be taken in by a relative in the US or government-sponsored guardian, Reuters reported, citing multiple sources.
Currently, families contesting deportation or applying for asylum are generally released from detention quickly and allowed to remain in the US until their cases are resolved.
A federal appeals court ruling bars prolonged child detention.
President Trump has called for ending so-called “catch and release,” in which migrants who cross illegally are freed to live in the US while awaiting legal proceedings.
Two of the officials were briefed on the proposal at a Feb. 2 town hall for asylum officers by US Citizenship and Immigration Services asylum chief John Lafferty.
A third DHS official told Reuters the department was actively considering separating women from their children, but had not made a final decision.
A White House spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
About 54,000 children and their guardians were apprehended between October 2016, and January 2017, more than double the number caught over the same time period a year earlier.
Republicans in Congress have argued women are willing to risk the dangerous journey with their children because they are assured they will be quickly released from detention and given court dates set years into the future.
Immigrant rights advocates have argued that Central America’s violent and impoverished conditions force mothers to immigrate to the United States and that they should be given asylum status.
The policy would allow DHS to detain parents while complying with a 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals order from July 2016 that immigrant children should be released from detention as quickly as possible. That order said their parents were not required to be freed.
To comply with that order, the Obama administration implemented a policy of holding women and children at family detention centers for no more than 21 days before releasing them.
Implementing the new policy proposal “could create lifelong psychological trauma,” said Marielena Hincapie, executive director at the National Immigration Law Center. “Especially for children that have just completed a perilous journey from Central America.”
Hincapie said the US government is likely to face legal challenges based on immigration and family law if they decide to implement the policy.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly last week ordered immigration agents to deport or criminally prosecute parents who facilitate the illegal smuggling of their children.
With Reuters
