The number of infants under the age of one in Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention at the border has increased since January, reaching levels that alarm immigration advocates. Pro-bono attorneys working along the southern border noticed the increase over the course of a few weeks last month, when visiting clients in a detention center in Dilley, Texas.
Attorneys were worried to see infants as young as five months old cradled in their mothers' arms. By the end of February, they determined that at least "nine infants under one year of age" were detained in the South Texas Family Residential Center, which is one of the largest family detention centers in the country with 2,400 beds. Three of the country's more prominent immigration legal organizations—the America Immigration Council, the American Immigration Lawyers Association, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network—subsequently filed a complaint addressed to two Department of Homeland Security oversight officials calling for the immediate release of these nine infants detained with their mothers in the Dilley facility.
ICE, reached for comment on Friday, put the number of infants detained even higher. "As of March 1, 2019, there are 17 infants under one year old among the family units at the South Texas FRC," writes Danielle Benent, an ICE spokesperson. In addition, Bennet adds that one infant under the age of one is currently being held at a family residential center in Karnes, Texas.
[For more on this story by JACK HERRERA, go to https://psmag.com/news/the-num...upward-since-january]
Comments (0)