Judge to order US to stop detaining migrant kids in hotels
Source: Associated Press
NOMAAN MERCHANT
, Associated Press
Sep. 4, 2020
Updated: Sep. 4, 2020 5:37 p.m.
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge said Friday that she would order the Trump administration to stop detaining immigrant children in hotels before expelling them from the United States, a policy enacted during the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee indicated she would rule that the use of hotels as detention spaces violates a two-decade-old settlement governing the treatment of immigrant children in custody.
Immigration agencies since March have expelled 148,000 people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border under an emergency declaration citing the pandemic. The Trump administration says people crossing the border without authorization threaten public health and must quickly be forced out of the country. Advocates for immigrants argue the administration is using the pandemic as a pretext to sidestep federal anti-trafficking laws and asylum protections.
To prevent them from being allowed to stay in the U.S., the Trump administration has taken at least 577 unaccompanied children to hotels since March, where they are detained and then typically placed on deportation flights. Most of the children have been placed in Hampton Inn & Suites hotels — two in Texas, one in Arizona.
Read more: https://www.chron.com/news/article/Judge-to-order-US-to-stop-detaining-migrant-kids-15544215.php