Officials held 3-year-old immigrant alone in detention center for days: attorney

[Judi Lynn]

Source: McClatchy Washington Bureau

Officials held 3-year-old immigrant alone in detention center for days: attorney

McClatchy Washington Bureau
25 Jun 2016 at 18:20 ET
Franco Ordonez
McClatchy Washington Bureau
Posted with permission from Tribune Content Agency

WASHINGTON — A 3-year-old boy from El Salvador was held for several days at a Pennsylvania family detention center without his mother, said the mother and boy's attorney.

The boy had been held at the Berks County Residential Center from Wednesday until Saturday when immigration lawyers interceded on his behalf. He was there alone while his 21-year-old mother, who was detained crossing the border, was hospitalized with an unknown condition. She spoke on the condition of anonymity because she feared repercussions from the detention center staff.

The Berks facility is one of three family detention centers where immigration officials detain mothers and children together. The objective is to keep the children with their parents as they await court dates or asylum hearings, but the boy had been held alone under the care of staffers of the detention center staff.

"This is outrageous," said Carol Anne Donohoe, who represents the mother and her son. "Picture a 3-year-old being detained without his mother who is in the hospital. He has no idea what that means at the age of 3."



Read more: http://www.rawstory.com/2016/06/officials-held-3-year-old-immigrant-alone-in-detention-center-for-days-attorney/

[enough]

1. More barbarism in Pennsylvania, my state. (nt)

[pipoman]

2. The conservative Christians are rejoicing and chanting

"WWJD? Why he'd say fuck'em of course...."

[Chakab]

5. Conservative Christians my ass. This is Obama's refugee policy.

[pipoman]

10. Yeah, it doesn't read like it's policy

It reads like an anomaly...an unfortunate anomaly, not policy. The fact we have no refugee policy beside 'fuck'em' is driven by conservatives.

[ManiacJoe]

3. Lots of details missing from that article.

Maybe ICE was doing the right thing, maybe not. It certainly looks like they were handling things poorly.

[Ash_F]

4. Could they not have taken the child to the hospital?

[ManiacJoe]

6. Not a good option for the hospital staff.

[treestar]

7. If he was under care of staff and mother was in the hospital

How "outrageous" is that? If they took good care of him, what is wrong with that? What were they supposed to do?

[One_Life_To_Give]

9. +1

[pipoman]

11. She was in the hospital for 3 days?

Did she have her head removed? That's about what it takes here to get 3 days in the hospital...I suspect it was more detention than healthcare...

The US refugee (a.k.a. illegal immigrant) policy is bad. Conservative Christians in Washington (just about all rethugs wear this moniker proudly) who constantly oppose policy to bring these people out of the shaddows in favor of sending them back to the horror they left, should be called out to speculate WWJD when they are spewing their hateful 'fuck"em, send'em back' bullshit.

[treestar]

12. So you've decided they put her in the hospital without cause?

I really doubt that. You're are accusing low level government workers of a malicious little plot to separate a healthy mother from her child by pretending she was sick. That is not very likely.

[midnight]

8. This is outrageous… Who ever is in charge of that decision needs a different job.

[Vinca]

13. If the mother was sick and had to be hospitalized she couldn't take the little boy with her.

Parents usually can't take their child to the hospital to stay with them. The issue is whether the boy was being cared for in her absence. It doesn't sound like the little kid was left to fend for himself.

[Sunlei]

14. So, how much did "Berks County Residential Center" rake in of Americans Federal funds to

keep a Mother and child in prison per day?

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

15. Why was mom hospitalized?

With privacy laws, we won't know the answer to that (nor should we). Her reason for hospitalization may have had something to do with the fact that the child was under one-on-one 24 hour attention. Did she have a contagious disease or was she suspected of having a contagious disease that the child could have passed on?

While I'm sure both mother and child were terrified, that doesn't mean that malice was intended or negligence occurred.