A federal judge ordered the release of the children from ICE detention centers, saying “there is no more time for half the measures,” after 2,500 immigrants tested positive for coronavirus and an increase in infections in the United States.
Judge Dolly M. Gee of the United States District Court for the Central District of California ruled on Friday that migrant children will be released from the three family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania with “deliberate speed” due to the risks of contracting the deadly virus.
“Family residential centers are on fire and there is no more time for half measures,” he wrote in the ruling.
The order comes as fears for the safety of the migrant population mount after around 2,500 immigrants detained by ICE, including several children, have tested positive for coronavirus to date.
This equates to almost 20 percent of the 13,641 people currently detained by ICE, according to their latest population data for June 20.
Immigrant families are cared for at the ICE South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, in 2019. A federal judge ordered the release of the children from ICE detention centers saying “there is no more time for half the measures.” , after 2,500 immigrants tested positive for the coronavirus and infections increase in the United States.
Gee ordered that the migrant children detained at Berks in Pennsylvania, South Texas (Dilley) and the Karnes County Family Residential Centers in Texas be released before July 17 after some tested positive for the deadly virus.
The ruling, in which Gee criticized the Trump administration for failing to take coronavirus precautions on the premises, applies to children who have been detained for more than 20 days.
Children should be released together with their parents or ‘available suitable sponsors or other available COVID-free non-assembled settings’ with the consent of their parents.
A total of 124 children, aged between 1 year and 17 years, lived in the centers as of June 8.
This is the first time that a court has set a specific deadline rather than simply ordering the “immediate” release of children in family detention if their parents have appointed a guardian in the United States to take custody.
Judge Dolly M. Gee of the United States District Court for the Central District of California (pictured) ruled Friday that migrant children will be released from the three family detention centers in Texas and Pennsylvania with “full deliberate speed ”
Peter Schey, an attorney for the class of detained children, said many families would choose to send their children to guardians in the United States to return with them to their home countries where they could be “kidnapped, beaten and killed.”
‘Some detained parents facing deportation brought their children to this country to save them from rampant violence in their home countries and would rather see their children handed over to their relatives here rather than being deported with parents to countries where children are routinely kidnapped, beaten and beaten. murdered, ” he said.
Concerns have been raised that detention centers could be hotbeds for the virus due to high volumes of people living in overcrowded conditions.
Cases are on the rise across the United States with the number of infections increasing by almost 40,000 on Thursday, representing the largest single-day increase since the pandemic began.
COVID-19 deaths have now exceeded 125,000 and states in the south and west, including Texas, are reaching record levels of cases and hospitalizations.
Fears for the migrant population have come true, with several confirmed cases at facilities across the country.
ICE said it released some 900 vulnerable people and reduced the number of people in each of its 137 detention centers to try to limit the risk of outbreaks.
At least 11 children and parents at the Karnes City facility have been confirmed to have the virus, while an unknown number of immigrants in Dilley await the test results after staff members tested positive.
Gee’s ruling comes a month after Democratic lawmakers in the House of Representatives asked the Trump administration to respond to allegations that ICE was forcing detained families to choose between staying with their children or releasing them.
Similar accounts were shared by people in the three family centers.
“The administration must stop using this public health crisis as a means to implement illegal and inhumane immigration policies,” said the letter from the Democrats.
“In these extraordinary times, human suffering does not have to be complicated by locking up families or instilling fear in the hearts of migrant parents.”
ICE denied having separated the parents from their children in accordance with the “binary option”.
Gee oversees compliance with the Flores Settlement Agreement that sets limits on the length of time and conditions under which children may be incarcerated in immigration detention.
In September 2018, the Trump Administration sought to end the agreement, including the fact that children must be transferred to an authorized and unsafe facility within three to five days of detention, or up to 20 days in an emergency, and instead allow children to be detained longer.
Gee blocked the attempts, which are now going through the appeals courts.
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