FEDS ARE OPENING MORE DETENTION CENTERS IN TEXAS AS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION STEPS UP DEPORTATIONS
The families detained at Karnes are a mix of nationalities and have been in the country for varying periods of time, said Javier Hidalgo, a lawyer with Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, known as RAICES, which is representing numerous families.
The families came from Colombia, Romania, Iran, Angola, Russia, Armenia, Turkey and Brazil, according to RAICES.
“It’s not just folks who recently arrived and are being put through expedited removal,” Hidalgo said. “It seems like the intent is more punitive, which runs exactly against the whole notion that immigration detention isn’t [the same as criminal incarceration] … Immigration detention is supposed to be civil detention — if there really is such a thing — and it can’t be punitive for deterrence.”
The Biden administration greatly reduced family detention but did not stop it entirely. Now advocates are worried the Trump administration will ramp it up to new levels, with Texas facilities becoming the hubs.
“It’s just clear from every doctor, lawyer, anybody who cares about children that you are really committing child abuse when you lock up children with their parents,” said Denise Gilman, co-director of the immigration clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, who is currently teaching at the Georgetown Law Center. “This is government child abuse.”
