Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Hundreds of migrant children held in U.S. tent city for months: filings
Source: Reuters
U.S. OCTOBER 22, 2018 / 8:55 PM / UPDATED 9 HOURS AGO
Hundreds of migrant children held in U.S. tent city for months: filings
Tom Hals, Kristina Cooke
4 MIN READ
(Reuters) - U.S. authorities have held some immigrant children who entered the country illegally and without a parent in a temporary “tent city” in Texas for months, violating a 20-year-old court order on how long minors can be detained, according to court filings by civil rights lawyers and immigration advocates.
More than 500 children have been housed in tents near Tornillo, Texas since August, and 46 have been held there since June, according to a Friday court filing in Los Angeles federal court by civil rights organizations and advocacy groups representing migrant children.
The filing opposes a government request to exempt the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which runs the tent city as a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), from oversight by a court-ordered monitor.
Under the terms of a 1997 court settlement known as the Flores agreement, U.S. authorities must quickly move immigrant children out of prison-like detention centers, either releasing them to guardians or placing them in state-licensed shelters with access to schooling and legal counsel, generally within 20 days. Tornillo is not such a licensed facility.
-snip-
Hundreds of migrant children held in U.S. tent city for months: filings
Tom Hals, Kristina Cooke
4 MIN READ
(Reuters) - U.S. authorities have held some immigrant children who entered the country illegally and without a parent in a temporary “tent city” in Texas for months, violating a 20-year-old court order on how long minors can be detained, according to court filings by civil rights lawyers and immigration advocates.
More than 500 children have been housed in tents near Tornillo, Texas since August, and 46 have been held there since June, according to a Friday court filing in Los Angeles federal court by civil rights organizations and advocacy groups representing migrant children.
The filing opposes a government request to exempt the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), which runs the tent city as a branch of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), from oversight by a court-ordered monitor.
Under the terms of a 1997 court settlement known as the Flores agreement, U.S. authorities must quickly move immigrant children out of prison-like detention centers, either releasing them to guardians or placing them in state-licensed shelters with access to schooling and legal counsel, generally within 20 days. Tornillo is not such a licensed facility.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-immigration-tentcity/hundreds-of-migrant-children-held-in-u-s-tent-city-for-months-filings-idUSKCN1MX02F
