Over New Year’s weekend, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted raids to round up and deport Central American families. According to information made available by DHS, 121 adults and children were apprehended across Georgia, Texas, and North Carolina. Apprehended families are being held at the South Texas Family Detention Center in Dilley, Texas. On December 31, before the raids took place, more than 160 legal services, immigration, refugee, faith, and civil rights organizations sent a letter to President Obama asking him to renounce such aggressive enforcement tactics against this vulnerable population.
In addition, the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project has interviewed the detainees, and found that that these families have bona fide asylum claims, but were deprived of a meaningful opportunity to present them at their hearings in immigration court.
We find ironic and disturbing that while this administration has raised by 10,000 the quota for Syrian refugees in FY 2016, it is deporting mothers and children who are already in the United States and seeking protection as they have fled the most violent region in the western hemisphere and are trying to find refuge.
In addition, the CARA Family Detention Pro Bono Project has interviewed the detainees, and found that that these families have bona fide asylum claims, but were deprived of a meaningful opportunity to present them at their hearings in immigration court.
We find ironic and disturbing that while this administration has raised by 10,000 the quota for Syrian refugees in FY 2016, it is deporting mothers and children who are already in the United States and seeking protection as they have fled the most violent region in the western hemisphere and are trying to find refuge.
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