Immigrant Workers Help Florida Thrive. Anti-Immigrant Policies Threaten That

 

In 2022, more than one in five Florida residents were immigrants. In that same year, immigrants in Florida were over 14% more likely than their U.S.-born neighbors to be of working age, positioning them to actively participate in the labor force and economy. And they did just that—immigrants contributed $12.0 billion in state and local taxes, punching above their weight as they made up only 26.6% of the state’s workforce.

Despite these contributions, Governor Ron DeSantis and other state leaders continue to support policies that harm immigrants, their families, and the Florida community at large. These policies also exacerbate workforce shortages, resulting in undue harm to businesses and instilling fear and uncertainty among the immigrant community.

During the last decade, some Florida leaders have advanced anti-immigrant policies, despite community pushback and legal challenges, that would negatively impact key Florida businesses and industries such as tourism. Despite these concerns, state leaders have continued to introduce and pass harmful legislation targeting immigrants, leading to detrimental rippling effects across Florida. Some recent policies include:

• SB 168 (2019): Required every Florida county and municipality to enforce federal immigration laws.
• SB 1808 (2022): Expanded upon SB 168 to force law enforcement agencies operating county detention centers to enter “287(g) ” agreements with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Continúe leyendo https://inmigracionyvisas.com/a6063-Immigrant-Workers-Help-Florida-Thrive.html

Borderland: The Line Within, CBP’s Raid on a Humanitarian Aid Camp

 

Borderland: The Line Within, a documentary directed by Pamela Yates and produced by Skylight Pictures, made its theatrical debut on May 3. Borderland takes viewers through a gripping narrative of how immigration enforcement agencies—from the U.S.-Mexico border to places well within our nation’s interior—have created what the film calls the “border industrial complex,” a system “that transforms the suffering of immigrant lives into corporate profit .”

The producers of the film included footage from a raid that U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) carried out on a humanitarian aid camp set up in the Arizona desert that provided water and shelter to migrants crossing the border. The filmmakers obtained videos recorded by CBP officers with the help of the American Immigration Council through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, highlighting the importance of transparency to understand CBP’s tactics.

The documentary follows the stories of Kaxh Mura’l and Gabriella Castañeda across a four-year period. Mura’l is an Indigenous Mayan and environmental defender who fled his native Guatemala to seek political asylum in the U.S. after he received death threats. Castañeda is an undocumented immigrant who lost her DACA status in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Throughout the documentary, she resists U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) efforts to deport her.

More information https://inmigracionyvisas.com/a6041-Borderland-The-Line-Within-Border-Patrol-raid.html

Flores Agreement Could Leave Immigrant Children Unprotected

Posted by Gianna Borroto www.immigrationimpact.com/

The Department of Justice asked a court to partially terminate the decades-old agreement that protects the rights of immigrant children earlier this month.

The government argues that the Flores Settlement Agreement is no longer needed because a new Department of Health and Human Services regulation finalized on April 30 will provide sufficient protections to immigrant children in HHS care. Advocates fear that the end of the agreement and decades of oversight by Flores counsel could put children in danger.

Because the new rule only applies to HHS, the government only seeks to terminate the parts of the agreement that relate to children in HHS custody. Last December, the American Immigration Council was one of nearly 200 organizations that signed on to a set of public comments on the proposed rule, submitted on behalf of groups advocating for unaccompanied immigrant children, immigrants, and individuals with disabilities.

What is the Flores Settlement Agreement?

The Flores Settlement Agreement came out of years of litigation brought by a class of immigrant children who had been indefinitely detained in inhumane conditions by the former Immigration and Naturalization Service agency. 

More information https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a6034-Flores-Agreement-Could-Leave-Immigrant-Children-Unprotected.html #Immigrant, #Children

6 Firsthand Stories That Reveal the Problem with Family Detention

 

Written by Atenas Burrola, Pro Bono Manager and Crystal Massey, National Pro Bono Coordinator for the Afghan Project at the American Immigration Council

The Biden administration is reportedly considering reopening family detention. This is horrific news—news that left us in tears. Between the two of us, we dedicated countless hours working and volunteering in what was then the nation’s largest family detention center in Dilley, Texas. During that time, we witnessed firsthand the horrors of family detention and are almost beyond belief that the administration is considering bringing it back.

The 2,400-bed South Texas Family Residential Center (STFRC) in Dilley, known as “baby jail” or “Dilley” to advocates, opened in early 2015. Its use as a family detention center was ended, ironically, by the Biden administration in 2021. To us, that closure was an important acknowledgement of the inhumanity of family detention. It was a sign that the Biden administration understood that the purported purpose of family detention—deterrence—was cruel and didn’t work. It was a step forward.  More information  https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a5703-Stories-That-Reveal-the-Problem-with-Family-Detention.html 

Biden Administration Announces End to Title 42 Border Policy

 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Friday that it will be terminating the Title 42 border policy. The U.S. government has used this policy to turn away asylum seekers and migrants over 1.7 million times since March 2020. The policy will end on May 23 to give the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) time to implement the termination. After May 23, individuals approaching the border will be processed normally as they were before Title 42 went into place.

Title 42 refers to an obscure public health law that allowed the government to invoke the COVID-19 pandemic to turn away people seeking refuge in the United States. Ending Title 42 is a critical step in reforming an asylum process that has been decimated over the last six years.

More information https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a5411-Biden-Announces-End-to-Title-42-Border-Policy.html

ICE needs a consistent system of discretionary release from detention

 

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) need to establish clear guidance for when ICE should release someone from detention. So far, the Biden administration, like past administrations, has failed to issue this essential guidance. This inaction has left thousands of people needlessly detained.

On October 5, the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) sent a letter calling on the administration to release such guidance. It is a follow up to an initial letter sent in March.

The number of people trapped in immigration detention has exploded over the past two decades. In 1994, fewer than 7,000 immigrants were detained. In 2019, the population reached a record high of over 50,000 . The population declined significantly in early 2021, due primarily to restrictions at the border and the COVID-19 pandemic, providing the Biden administration an opportunity to permanently downsize ICE detention. Unfortunately, the population has increased by 70% since Biden’s inauguration.

More information https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a5269-ICE-needs-a-consistent-system-of-release.html

ICE Announces New Victim-Centered Policy, Showing a Favorable Shift Toward Vulnerable Immigrants

 

By Kate Goettel - www.immigrationimpact.com/

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced this week a new policy designed to honor and protect vulnerable immigrants. The new policy addresses protections for survivors of violence, trafficking, and domestic abuse. Issued on August 11, the policy states that ICE will exercise prosecutorial discretion “to facilitate access to justice and victim-based immigration benefits by noncitizen crime victims.” Among other things, ICE will refrain from enforcement actions, absent exceptional circumstances, until U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) makes a final or interim decision on an application for immigration benefits.

Importantly, the memo defines “enforcement actions” broadly to constrain ICE, in most circumstances, from taking the following actions against individuals with pending applications for victim-based protections:

• Issuing detainers.
• Issuing a Notice to Appear, the charging document in immigration court proceedings.
• Stopping, questioning, or arresting an individual.
• Detention.
• Executing a removal order; i.e., deportation from the United States.

The new policy also constrains ICE from taking enforcement actions during a pending criminal investigation or prosecution...

More information  https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a5215-ICE-Announces-New-Victim-Centered-Policy.html

The New CBP One App May Put Immigrants and Travelers’ Privacy at Risk

 

It is unquestionable that technology creates efficiencies. But efficiency should not come at the total expense of privacy. A new app from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) toes that line between productivity and the need for users’ privacy.

In October 2020, CBP launched a new mobile application to help process individuals entering the United States. The CBP One mobile app has three known functions:

• Merchants can use it to make appointments for cargo inspection.
• Foreign travelers can apply for an arrival and departure record and use its GPS to document their entry and exit from the United States.
• Organizations in Mexico may use it to verify whether individuals are enrolled in the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program.

Though the app’s efficiencies may seem obvious at first glance,

More information https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a5208-CBP-One-App-May-Put-Immigrants-Privacy-at-Risk.html

ICE will stop arresting and detaining most pregnant and nursing people

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will no longer detain most people who are pregnant, postpartum, or nursing, according to a new policy released on July 9. However, ICE did not commit to a total ban, saying that there will still be “very limited circumstances” that will allow the agency to detain pregnant people.

The move is a clear shift away from the Trump administration, which in 2017 ended the presumption of release for such individuals. In the two years following that change, the rate at which ICE detained pregnant people skyrocketed by 52%, increasing from 1,380 in 2016 to nearly 2,100 pregnant people in 2018.

In announcing the new policy, ICE Director Tae Johnson said the change “reflects our commitment to treat all individuals with respect and dignity while still enforcing our nation’s laws.” ICE’s new policy
 

More information https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a5185-ICE-will-stop-arresting-and-detaining-pregnant.html

Collecting DNA From Asylum Seekers at the Border Raises Privacy Concerns

 

U.S. Customs and Border Protection is collecting DNA from asylum seekers at the border, recent media reports confirm. This is the latest expansion of DNA collection as part of a program initiated under the Trump administration that targets nearly all immigrants in government custody. A growing number of noncitizens are being subjected to this invasive collection of sensitive personal information with little knowledge or understanding of how their information will be used or stored by the federal government.

While the southern border remains largely closed to asylum seekers due to the Biden administration’s continuation of the Title 42 expulsions policy, some families and particularly vulnerable individuals are being allowed to enter to pursue their claims. And it is this population that is being subjected to DNA collection as they enter the United States.

The Biden administration has continued this policy despite privacy concerns and no clear justification.

More information https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a5161-Collecting-DNA-From-Asylum-Seekers-at-the-Border.html

Explaining Title 42 Expulsions at the Border

 

By: Jorge Loweree www.americanimmigrationcouncil.org - Photography: Arog Vila

The ability to seek asylum in the United States is a fundamental human right. But since March 2020, that right has largely been suspended.

U.S. government officials began “expelling” people who arrive at our southern border without any due process protections in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

They have carried out hundreds of thousands of expulsions under a little-known provision of U.S. health law called Title 42. Despite objections from scientists, the Trump administration implemented Title 42 to close the border to immigrants and asylum seekers.

Many asylum seekers continue to be expelled back to Mexico or their home countries under Title 42. The Biden administration has not put forward any plan to end the use of Title 42 at the border.

What is Title 42 and how did it go into place?

On March 20, 2020, the Department of Health and... more information https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a5103-Title-42-Expulsions-at-the-Border.html

Women In ICE Detention Given Hysterectomies Without Their Consent

 

By: Katy Murdza - www.immigrationimpact.com

A whistleblower has come forward to expose serious allegations of medical malpractice at a for-profit U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in Ocilla, Georgia. The whistleblower—who was until recently employed as a nurse at the Irwin County detention center—worked with several non-governmental organizations to file two complaints with Department of Homeland Security oversight agencies.

The first complaint details the facility’s failure to take COVID-19 precautions and provide adequate medical care. The second contains allegations that women detained at the facility were given hysterectomies—sometimes without their consent—at an unusually high rate.

LaSalle Corrections is a private prison company that the federal government contracts to operate the Irwin County Detention Center that is the subject of the complaint. It operates a total of 18 facilities across the southern United States, which can hold up to 18,000 people collectively.

More information https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4937-Women-in-ICE-Detention-Given-Hysterectomies.html

Trump Administration Begins Sending Asylum Seekers To Guatemala

In yet another major blow to America’s asylum system, on Wednesday the Trump administration reportedly began sending some asylum seekers from Honduras and El Salvador to Guatemala rather than permit them to seek protection in the United States.

Under the “Asylum Cooperative Agreement” deal signed with Guatemala in July, the Guatemalan government will process the asylum claims of people who arrive at the U.S. border without visas.

For the first time in American history, large numbers of refugees can now be returned to a third country without their consent.

This denies them any opportunity to seek protection in the United States. Instead, people will be required to apply for asylum in Guatemala, a country with one of the highest rates of poverty and malnutrition in the entire Western Hemisphere...

 

More information: https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4632-Sending-Asylum-Seekers-to-Guatemala.html 

 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com

Immigration Agencies’ Intrusive Searches Of Cell Phones, Laptops Are Ruled Unconstitutional

By Emma Winger

A federal court ruled this week that sweeping policies permitting U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to search personal cell phones, laptops, and other electronic devices without reasonable suspicion are unconstitutional.

The policies that the court rejected authorized CBP and ICE officers to search the contents of electronic devices of people arriving at U.S. borders, including U.S. airports, without reasonable suspicion that those devices might have evidence of illegal activity and without a court order. Immigration officers could randomly search the cell phones and laptops of anyone arriving in the United States, including U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents.

In Alasaad v. McAleenan, ten U.S. citizens and one lawful permanent resident challenged these policies, arguing, in part, that they violate the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. On Tuesday, the court agreed.

More information...

 

https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4626-search-the-cell-phones-and-laptops-of-anyone-arriving.html

 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com 

New Process In El Paso Seeks To Deport Asylum Seekers In Less Than 10 Days

By Katie Shepherd

The Trump administration began a secretive new asylum process in El Paso, Texas that came to light late last week. It seeks to deter asylum seekers from coming to the United States and to remove them as quickly as possible once they’re here.

The process—dubbed the “Prompt Asylum Claim Review” or “PACR”—condenses the asylum process from several months or more to under 10 days. It is riddled with due process concerns and will likely result in countless individuals’ deportation to imminent harm. Media reports indicate that the program is being piloted in El Paso and is a joint initiative between the Department of Homeland Security and the Justice Department.

Under PACR, individuals apprehended in the El Paso area are kept in holding cells (known in Spanish as hieleras) or are taken to a local 1,500-bed soft-sided facility operated by Customs and Border Protection (CBP).

They are given 24 hours to make a phone call to an attorney or otherwise prepare for their case before having an interview with an asylum officer. The officer will decide whether they have a credible fear of persecution if returned to the country they fled.

Many asylum seekers being processed at the border are subjected to the asylum transit ban, which blocks asylum eligibility for those who traveled through another country before reaching the United States. As a result, Central Americans are especially impacted by the ban. They are only eligible for a more limited form of relief (withholding of removal) under a heightened fear screening standard that is much harder to meet.

Those who fail these screening interviews may have their case reviewed via telephone by an immigration judge. The judge conducts a cursory review of the case.

Even if someone can secure a lawyer within 24 hours, they are unable to meet with them in person at the facility. CBP does not permit attorneys to physically access the facilities. Detainees only have limited access to phone calls.

Individuals seeking asylum will remain in CBP custody during their credible fear interview. This is a big departure from previous procedures. Typically, individuals only spend a few days in CBP custody before being transferred to a detention center operated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

CBP facilities are notorious for their terrible conditions and have long been the subject of litigation. The facilities are designed to hold individuals only for short-term stays. Government guidance advises that individuals be held for no longer than 72 hours—far less than the 10 days called for under PACR.

Reports have surfaced in recent weeks exposing these substandard conditions and inadequate access to medical care. This is particularly concerning, since those subject to the program include families with young children and infants.

The obstacles set before asylum seekers along the U.S.-Mexico border—and El Paso in particular—are almost insurmountable. Individuals placed in PACR must secure counsel within 24 hours, endure deplorable conditions for days in CBP custody, and meet a much higher legal standard than before.

This pilot process is yet another example of the Trump administration setting up asylum seekers to fail. The program entirely disregards due process for those who the asylum system was specifically designed to protect.

 

 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com

https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4571-New-Process-Seeks-To-Deport-Asylum-Seekers.html

Federal Court Blocks Error-Prone ICE Deportation Program

By: Emma Winger www.immigrationimpact.com

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has arrested millions of people based on unreliable electronic databases. In a recent court decision with nationwide impact, a federal judge in California ruled that parts of this mass deportation program—called Secure Communities—are unconstitutional.

Through Secure Communities, anyone arrested and fingerprinted for any reason has their fingerprints sent to ICE. ICE runs those fingerprints through certain databases and then, often without any additional investigation, issues a detainer —a request that the federal, state, or local law enforcement agency hold the person for up to 48 hours after they would otherwise be released from custody. This extra time allows ICE to arrest the person. This means that ICE asks state officers to arrest people for deportation based on nothing more than a few clicks on a computer.

In Gonzalez v. ICE, a case brought on behalf of people who are or will be the subject of a detainer issued by an ICE officer in the central region of California, the court found that Secure Communities is fatally flawed. The databases include incomplete, outdated, and incorrect information.

The results are predictable. Countless people have been arrested without adequate cause. For example, from May 2015 to February 2016, ICE asked law enforcement officers to arrest almost 800 people who were either U.S. citizens or otherwise not deportable. The court ruled that ICE violates the U.S. Constitution in two ways when the agency issues a detainer based solely on these faulty databases.

First, ICE is asking state officers to make an arrest without “probable cause” that the person is deportable. Second, in many cases, ICE is asking state officers to do something they aren’t allowed to do—arrest someone for the purpose of deportation. In many states, law enforcement officers are only allowed to arrest a person for a crime.

The court blocked ICE from issuing detainers relying on nothing more than error-prone databases and from making these arrest requests in states where law enforcement officers are not authorized to arrest for deportation.

Though the court’s order applies to ICE agents in California, this includes ICE’s Pacific Enforcement Response Center, which issues detainers across the county when local ICE offices are closed. As a result, the court’s decision is an important check on ICE’s unconstitutional deportation machine.

 

 

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com 

https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4533-Federal-Court-Blocks-Error-Prone-ICE-Deportation-Program.html

Chaos And Dysfunction At The Border: Remain In Mexico Program

By Aaron Reichlin-Melnick www.immigrationimpact.com

The first thing many people forcibly returned to Mexico tell you is that they’re afraid. Afraid of the cartels, afraid of Mexican immigration officials, and afraid of the months of uncertainty. This is what they’ve faced since the Trump administration sent them back to Mexico as part of the “Remain in Mexico” program—formally called the “Migrant Protection Protocols” (MPP).

Last week, I visited El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juárez in Mexico to witness the effects of MPP firsthand. What I saw was chaos, dysfunction, and a policy that has removed what little remaining due process protections existed in immigration court.

Under MPP, individuals who cross the border or arrive at ports of entry are given a notice to appear in immigration court and then sent back to Mexico through a port of entry. Only Mexicans, unaccompanied children, and “vulnerable” individuals are excluded from the program. But that hasn’t stopped U.S. Customs and Border Protection from forcing back extremely pregnant women and vulnerable LGBT+ individuals.

In Ciudad Juárez, those subject to MPP are largely waiting in a network of private and publicly operated shelters. Although some lucky few have managed to obtain jobs and alternate housing, most people subject to MPP will spend the next several months confined to small, crowded spaces because they are too afraid to leave the shelter.

Kidnappings, assaults, rapes, and murders are routine in Ciudad Juárez, and most everyone I talked to had either been victimized themselves or knew someone who had been.

With over 42,000 people sent back across the border under MPP since the program began in January 2019, MPP has rapidly become the most effective tool in the Trump administration’s efforts to stop asylum seekers from coming to the United States. When individuals are sent back under MPP, they are required to wait in Mexico until the date of their next court hearing. This can often take months. I talked to some people in Ciudad Juárez who were sent back in June 2019 and still hadn’t had their first court hearings.

If people survive the wait, they must return to the port of entry on the day of their hearing. They are then taken by armed guards to the nearest immigration court for a hearing.

Those subject to MPP will likely have to go through this process three or four times at a minimum before their case is resolved. Those who are actually able to file for asylum—likely only a small number, given that barely one percent of people subject to MPP have found lawyers—will wait even longer. It will likely take six months to a year for a resolution of their case. Throughout this whole time, they remain vulnerable in Mexico.

When I visited the El Paso immigration court, I was told that more than 15,000 people had been returned to Mexico from the El Paso region alone.

This massive swell of new cases has overwhelmed the small El Paso Immigration Court, which in 2018 saw just 1,464 new cases filed. The court only has four judges, which means that each judge has been assigned thousands of MPP cases.

Despite the small size of the court, judges have been forced to take on hundreds of cases a day. On one of the days I visited the court, a single judge had been assigned 161 cases total on her morning and afternoon dockets. By the end of the day, she had been unable to complete all the cases and was forced to send some people back to Mexico without any movement on their cases.

The sheer size of the MPP docket has also crowded out observers from the El Paso Court. Despite waiting all day at the court, I was told I was not allowed to observe any of the supposedly public hearings. They needed every available seat in the courtroom for individuals subject to MPP. This has plunged the court in El Paso into a state of secrecy, making it virtually impossible to track what’s happening in hearings.

Despite the unfolding humanitarian catastrophe, there is no sign that the Trump administration is planning to reverse course on MPP. In the next few weeks, tents housing MPP “immigration courts” are set to open in Laredo and Brownsville, Texas, where tens of thousands of new cases will begin. And until a court or Congress steps in, the chaos, dysfunction, and harm caused by this program will continue.

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com

https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4468-Chaos-and-Dysfunction-Remain-in-Mexico-Program.html

Investigation Demanded As Medical Care For Detained Immigrant Children Worsens

By Katy Murdza www.immigrationimpact.com

Border Patrol agents placed a detained 9-year-old girl with a kidney disease at high risk of a urinary tract infection by not allowing her to shower or change her underwear for five days. Agents also denied a 3-year-old medical care after she vomited 10 times in an hour. Agents failed to schedule a doctor’s appointment for a 2-year-old with diarrhea so severe his desperate mother had to change his diaper every 15 minutes. Other Border Patrol agents told a family that no detained children will see a doctor unless they have a fever.

Now, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)—Border Patrol’s parent agency—is being held accountable for these and other accounts of inadequate medical care for children held in its custody. The American Immigration Council and American Immigration Lawyers Association filed an administrative complaint on Wednesday with the FBI and two oversight branches of the Department of Homeland Security calling attention to these incidents.

The complaint includes excerpts from firsthand accounts of 200 asylum-seeking mothers about the inadequate care they received while held in CBP facilities. Each mother was later transferred with her child from CBP custody to the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, where their statements were collected.

Taken together, the testimonies show the consistent denial of medical care and unsafe conditions at CBP facilities:

• 67% of mothers stated that their child was not seen at all by a medical provider while in CBP custody, beyond a check for lice.
• 58% of the women who requested medical care for their child reported that they received no medical attention.
• 48% reported being detained with their child for longer than three days, in violation of CBP’s own guidelines.

Parents frequently report sleeping on cement floors for days with 24-hour light and noise. They often say their children’s health deteriorated in CBP custody without access to medical care, while they were forced to remain cold and wet with only thin mylar blankets.

CBP has repeatedly failed to follow even the very low standards that currently regulate its detention conditions.

The 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement requires that any facility holding children be “safe and sanitary,” but 22 years later, the government routinely violates its terms.

In 2017, Federal Judge Dolly Gee determined that the government was violating the agreement by failing to provide children adequate food, water, and basic hygiene items. In August 2019, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld this decision.

In July 2019, DHS’ Office of the Inspector General issued a management alert about “dangerous overcrowding” in the Rio Grande Valley Processing centers. The report revealed inadequate access to showers, changes of clothing, and hot meals. 31% of the children in the inspected facilities were there longer than 72 hours.

The consequence of being held in these substandard conditions can be devastating for children. At least seven immigrant children have died in government custody since last year.

According to Dr. Julie Linton, co-chair of the immigrant health special interest group at the American Academy of Pediatrics:

“Children are not like adults. They get sick more quickly and each hour of delay can be associated with serious complications, especially in cases of infectious diseases. Delays can lead to death.”

As the complaint demands, CBP must improve conditions and medical care in processing facilities. CBP agents who interact with children need to have child welfare experience. They should be trained to screen for medical issues and refer children to medical experts. Finally, all children should be released as quickly as possible, with an absolute maximum of 72 hours in CBP custody.

Source: www.immigrationimpact.com

https://www.inmigracionyvisas.com/a4453-Detained-Immigrant-Children-Worsens.html