ELCA NEWS SERVICE
February 23, 2007
LIRS Report Reveals Mistreatment of Detained Immigrant Families
07-025-AL
WASHINGTON, D.C. (ELCA) -- A report released Feb. 22 details
"disturbing" conditions at the two U.S. Department of Homeland
Security (DHS) facilities which house families undergoing
immigration proceedings.
"Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of Immigrant
Families," released by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service
(LIRS) and the Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children,
lists several key problems with the treatment of detained
families in the T. Don Hutto Residential Center in Taylor, Texas,
and the Berks Family Shelter Care Facility in Leesport, Pa.
Families are detained in "prison-like conditions" for days,
months, and sometimes years while awaiting resolution of their
immigration proceedings, according to the report. Many
experience widespread psychological trauma and are subject to
inadequate medical and mental health care, food service,
recreation, and disciplinary practices, the report said. Many
detained families are seeking asylum from persecution in their
home countries, but have limited access to legal counsel.
"As a country that supports family values, we should not be
treating families who have not committed a crime like criminals,
particularly children," said Ralston H. Deffenbaugh Jr., LIRS
president, Baltimore. Immigration violations are civil offenses,
and family detention centers do not house anyone with a criminal
conviction, he said.
LIRS is a cooperative agency of the Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America, Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Latvian
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.
Before the 512-bed Hutto Center opened in 2006, the majority
of families apprehended at the borders or in the interior of the
country were either released or separated from each other and
detained individually, according to the report. Because the
center increased family detainment capacity, the number of
families detained in such facilities has increased dramatically
since 2006.
Noting that LIRS supports keeping immigrant families
together during immigration proceedings, Deffenbaugh said, "Now
that the family detention system is beginning, we felt that it
was vital to examine the implications of this expanding penal
approach to family detention in order to inform the development
of policy and practice that serves the best interests of children
and families." Currently, there are no codified standards,
licensing requirements, nor impartial oversight and inspection
procedures in place regarding family detention centers.
The report made several specific recommendations:
+ Discontinue the detention of families in penal
institutions and close the Hutto Center.
+ Institutionalize a preference for release of all families
who can establish an identity and community ties and who do not
pose a security risk, so families are released no more than three
weeks after apprehension.
+ Implement alternatives to detention within three weeks for
families not eligible for parole or release.
+ House families not eligible for parole, release or
alternative programs in "appropriate nonpenal, homelike
facilities" subject to oversight and inspection by an independent
authority.
+ Do not redetain children released from Office of Refugee
Resettlement (ORR) custody upon family reunification. The report
details methods of entrapment of some immigrant parents, who are
called to pick up their children from ORR custody, only to have
the whole family detained.
+ Employ enhanced public-private partnerships to provide
legal orientation programs, including legal information and pro
bono legal access, for all detained families, including those in
expedited removal proceedings.
-- -- --
Audio of comments made at a Feb. 22 news conference by
Ralston H. Deffenbaugh Jr., LIRS president, Baltimore, is at
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/070222A.mp3 and by Emily
Butera, LIRS policy advocate, Washington, D.C., is at
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/070222B.mp3 on the ELCA Web site.
The full report, "Locking Up Family Values: The Detention of
Immigrant Families," is in a PDF format at
http://www.lirs.org/LockingUpFamilyValues.pdf on the Web.
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
