Family detention is the detention of multiple family members together in an immigration detention context. In the U.S. they are referred to as family detention camps, [1] family detention centers, [2] or family detention facilities. [3]
Families crossing the United States border without a visa or other papers demonstrating they are admissible to the country are currently subject to detention by Customs and Border Protection. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security defines only those children traveling with their parents or legal guardians as part of "family units" and all other children as "unaccompanied minors." [4] Adults traveling with children are required by Customs and Border Protection to verify their legal or biological parentage, and if they cannot, the children are deemed unaccompanied. [5] As a result, children traveling with grandparents, adult siblings, and aunts and uncles are separated and referred to the Unaccompanied Alien Children program. [4] Since 2017, the government separated some children from their parents as well under a family separation policy, although this policy was officially rescinded in June 2018. As of December 2021, under the Biden administration, family immigration detention is no longer being used. [6] [7] In March 2023 it was widely reported that the Biden administration was considering restarting the practice of detaining migrant families who cross the border illegally. [8] [9] As of October 2023, the Biden administration has not restarted this practice, opting instead to release families into the United States temporarily and "using ankle bracelets, traceable cellphones or other methods to keep track of them." [8]
In 2014 the Obama administration opened new family detention centers in the United States. At the time there was only one government-operated facility, which was located York County, Pennsylvania. [10]
In 2015, intact families were not regularly separated at the United States border. [11]
In February 2016, the designation Family Unit Aliens or FMUA was introduced. [12] The majority of families apprehended at the border were not linked to fraud according to an official within U.S. Customs and Border Protection. [13]
In July 2016, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit upheld a lower court's decision (in July 2015, by Judge Dolly Gee) to quickly release child migrants from family detention even when accompanied by a parent. [14]
In 2017 and 2018, the number of family units (groups of at least one adult and at least one child) from Guatemala and Honduras detained by the U.S. increased, as families fled gang violence and instability in Central America. [13]
In March 2021, shortly after Joe Biden became president, ICE announced that no families were being held at the Berks County Residential Center any more, and that the detention center would no longer be used for family detention. The other two family detention centers, Dilley and Karnes, were now to be used only for holding families for short, three-day periods. [15] [16] In December 2021, Axios reported that ICE would stop engaging in family detention for the time being, and officials confirmed this. [6] [7]
Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, holds immigrant families after their initial arrest. Under departmental standards, CBP should transfer them to Immigration and Customs Enforcement within 72 hours, but in 2019, many such families are being held for weeks in CBP custody. [17] On June 13, 2019, the government reported that 4,865 members of "family units" were held by the CBP. [17]
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement contracts with several facilities to detain families with children. The General Accounting Office reports that the 3 active facilities have a combined capacity of 3,326 people. [18] Active family detention centers include:
Former family detention centers include:
Executive Order 13841, signed on June 20, 2018, instructs that, "The Secretary of Defense shall take all legally available measures to provide to the Secretary, upon request, any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families, and shall construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law." [33] On June 21, the Department of Health and Human Services requested facilities to house migrant children. Pentagon spokesmen and a memorandum sent to Congress confirmed that the Department of Defense was preparing facilities at four military bases in Texas and Arkansas to house 20,000 "unaccompanied alien children." [34]
a family detention facility in McAllen, Texas
The administration did not immediately say how many people the new family detention centers will house or where they will be located. The government currently operates only one such facility, in York County, Pennsylvania, with space for fewer than 100 people.
The rumors correctly suggested that "family detention" as a whole came before the Trump administration, but as of August 2015 intact families at the border were rarely separated.
Apprehensions of Family Unit Aliens (FMUA), consisting of children who are apprehended with one or more parent or legal guardian, were approximately 68,445 in FY 2014; in FY 2015, CBP apprehended over 39,838. FMUA generally kept together unless one member of the family group is deemed harmful to another member.
Between October 2017 and May 2018, 99.75 percent of family units apprehended by at the border were not linked to fraud (i.e. pretending to be a parent). A Customs and Border Protection official said Tuesday that out of 59,113 total family unit apprehensions during that period, there were 148 cases of alleged fraud.
President Obama's immigration policy was dealt another blow Wednesday when the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court's opinion that child migrants who are accompanied by a parent and currently in family detention should be quickly released. It left the fate of the parents up in the air, however. The case centers on a 1997 legal settlement — known as the Flores agreement — that set legal requirements for the housing of children seeking asylum or in the country illegally. ee In July 2015, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles found the government had violated key provisions of the court settlement that put restrictions on the detention of migrant children.