Administration Should Act Immediately & Comply with Court Ruling

The Court gave Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) 60 days to end the immoral detention of children and we see no reason why the Administration should not act immediately.

The Women’s Refugee Commission calls on the Administration to comply with a U.S. Court ruling and end the detention of women and children seeking asylum at the U.S. border. The ruling, which came in response to the Administration’s request that the Court reconsider its finding that family detention violates domestic law, called out the Administration for “fear mongering.” Michelle Brané, director of the Migrant Rights and Justice Program issued the following statement:

The Court gave Immigration and Customs Service (ICE) 60 days to end the immoral detention of children and we see no reason why the Administration should not act immediately. While the ruling allows for detention up to 20 days for processing, this is unnecessary as there are alternatives to detention that better meet the needs of children and cost less. All the research and our own national conscience tells us that detaining children is a bad policy. The Administration had already ended the practice until a surge of unaccompanied children at the border last summer caused a panicked reaction. We saw again that there is no humane way to detain children and it is now definitely time for the Administration to stop delaying and start releasing asylum seekers.