Diocesan Resources
Demanding Dignity: The Call to End Family Detention (2015)
Demanding Dignity: The Call to End Family Detention
In response to the influx of approximately 60,000 migrant families arriving at the Southwest Border during the summer and fall of 2014, the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) launched a policy of detaining immigrant families in prison-like detention facilities located throughout the US but primarily along the US-Mexico border. In so doing, the U.S. government rapidly expanded its family detention capacity by building new facilities or retrofitting existing facilities in Artesia, New Mexico; Karnes, Texas; and Dilley, Texas, with the goal of increasing family detention bed space up to possibly 6,350 beds. With the closing of Artesia in November, 2014, family detention centers are currently located in Berks, Pennsylvania; Dilley, Texas; and Karnes, Texas, near San Antonio, comprising roughly 3,100 family detention beds. This contrasts dramatically with family detention capacity in April 2014, when there were roughly 100 beds in the entire United States. The women and children being detained in these facilities largely are from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras and are fleeing violence and persecution. Many have viable international protection claims.
Family detention is one aspect of the national immigrant detention network—a network that costs taxpayers $2 billion/year. Immigrant families (primarily young mothers and children) who are apprehended by the Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) are placed into Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. ICE then places these immigrant families into family detention facilities. Family immigrant detention facilities are described by ICE as “residential facilities,” with the families considered “residents.” In reality, however, the families have limited freedoms and are forced to live in a restrictive detention setting.