Judge orders Obama administration to release illegal immigrants from 'deplorable' facilities
Published July 26, 2015 - FoxNews.com
A federal judge in California has ruled that hundreds of illegal immigrant women and children in U.S. holding facilities should be released, another apparent setback for President Obama’s immigration policy, according to The Los Angeles Times.
U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee said Friday that the conditions in which the detainees are being held are “deplorable” and violate parts of an 18-year-old court settlement that put restrictions on the detention of migrant children.
The ruling also raises questions about what the administration will do with the estimated 1,700 parents and children at three detention facilities, two in Texas and one in Pennsylvania.
Last year, tens of thousands of women and unaccompanied minors from Central America arrived at the Southwest border, with many believing a rumor that unaccompanied children and single parents with at least one child would be allowed to stay.
More than 68,000 of them were apprehended and detained while officials decided whether they had a right to stay.
Many were being released and told to appear at immigration offices until the administration eventually opened new detention centers.
Gee said in her ruling that children in the two Texas facilities had been held in substandard conditions and gave the administration until Aug. 3 to respond.
“We are disappointed with the court's decision and are reviewing it in consultation with the Department of Justice,” Marsha Catron, press secretary for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said in a prepared statement given to The Times.
Many of the Central Americans who crossed the Southwest border illegally last summer said they were fleeing poverty and escalating gang violence.
The Texas facilities are run by private companies, while the one in Pennsylvania is run by a county government.
In February, a federal judge blocked Obama's 2012 executive action to protect millions of undocumented immigrants from being deported.
And a federal appeals court in New Orleans refused three months later to allow the program to go forward, denying an administration request to lift the lower court decision.
Gee’s decision is also seen as a victory for the immigrant rights lawyers who brought the case.
The ruling upholds a tentative decision Gee made in April and comes a week after the two sides told her that they failed to reach a new settlement agreement as she had requested.
The 1997 settlement bars immigrant children from being held in unlicensed, secure facilities. Gee found that settlement covered all children in the custody of federal immigration officials, even those being held with a parent.
The Justice Department had argued it was necessary to modify the settlement and use detention to try to deter more immigrants from coming to the border after last year's surge. The department also said it was an important way to keep families together while their immigration cases were being reviewed, but the judge rejected that argument in her decision.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
if our border security is the "best its been " in recent years according to Obama how does this situation occur? Most Americans see this crisis as a failure of border security and proper controls.
Rick Perrry is running for President and two camps are in his home state - yet he has remained remarkably quiet on border security- except to criticize Trump for his comments.
and people wonder why Trump is popular in the polls as compared to these morons.
[Edited on 7/27/2015 by OriginalGoober]
Judges ruling against the Obama Administration seems to be a pattern.
if our border security is the "best its been " in recent years according to Obama how does this situation occur? Most Americans see this crisis as a failure of border security and proper controls.
Rick Perrry is running for President and two camps are in his home state - yet he has remained remarkably quiet on border security- except to criticize Trump for his comments.
and people wonder why Trump is popular in the polls as compared to these morons.
[Edited on 7/27/2015 by OriginalGoober]
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Obama’s two detention centers in Texas are located on Federal property and The State of Texas has no control over them.
Rick Perry talks about the border problems constantly. Texans are none-to-pleased that The State of Texas had to spend of millions of dollars on border security when Obama refused to do his job, another violation of his oath of office.
Of course when Texas law enforcement picked up an illegal alien they followed the law and turned them over to INS who promptly released them.
Trump is popular with the main stream media and his poll numbers reflect that. Obama’s illegal immigration action is a serious matter with the American people and Trump got the discussion back on the front page.
Past that he doesn’t have a chance in hell of being elected president.
You don’t see Obama talking about the over 120 Americans murdered by illegal aliens released by his administration over the last five years but if a black criminal is shot by a white police officer Obama is right in front of the TV cameras and orders his justice department to do a civil rights prosecution.
Obama’s two detention centers in Texas are located on Federal property and The State of Texas has no control over them.
Rick Perry talks about the border problems constantly. Texans are none-to-pleased that The State of Texas had to spend of millions of dollars on border security when Obama refused to do his job, another violation of his oath of office.
Of course when Texas law enforcement picked up an illegal alien they followed the law and turned them over to INS who promptly released them.Trump is popular with the main stream media and his poll numbers reflect that. Obama’s illegal immigration action is a serious matter with the American people and Trump got the discussion back on the front page.
Past that he doesn’t have a chance in hell of being elected president.You don’t see Obama talking about the over 120 Americans murdered by illegal aliens released by his administration over the last five years but if a black criminal is shot by a white police officer Obama is right in front of the TV cameras and orders his justice department to do a civil rights prosecution.
Yawn.
Yawn.
Yup.
The usual clownservatives posting their drivel.
Yawn.
Yup.
The usual clownservatives posting their drivel.
shoot.....i thought after the lack of responses this weekend meant that we all were tired of engaging with this stuff.
Yawn.
Yup.
The usual clownservatives posting their drivel.
shoot.....i thought after the lack of responses this weekend meant that we all were tired of engaging with this stuff.
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Yea, one would think that Obama’s treatment of these people and callous disregard for the law and the American tax payer would garner an intelligent, thoughtful response from billy and ron but alas… as with Obama, votes are more important to them the people.
Funny. Now the right is complaining that the prisons for undocumented aliens aren't good enough. If they had good prison s they would complain about the illegal aliens getting Cadillac prisons and them being treated too well.
Funny. Now the right is complaining that the prisons for undocumented aliens aren't good enough. If they had good prison s they would complain about the illegal aliens getting Cadillac prisons and them being treated too well.
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The “right” has nothing to do with this matter. This ruling came from a Federal judge in a case brought by human rights organizations.
Obama refuses to secure the country’s borders purely for political purposes. He has left many of the people he allowed to illegally cross our border to languish in deplorable conditions in detainment camps.
Is Obama’s treatment of those he holds in his detainment camps okay with you?
Obama slapped down again by a Federal Judge:
California judge orders immigrant families released from detention
Published August 22, 2015 - FoxNews.com
A federal judge in California on Friday ordered the government to release immigrant children from family detention centers “without unnecessary delay,” and with their mothers when possible, according to court papers.
California U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee refused the government’s request to reconsider her ruling in late July that children held in family detention centers after cross the US-Mexico border illegally must be released quickly.
Gee called the government’s latest arguments “repackaged and reheated.’ She found Homeland Security in beach of a longstanding legal agreement stipulating that immigrant children cannot be held in unlicensed facilities, and gave agency officials until October 23 to comply.
Homeland Security lawyers asked the judge to reconsider her ruling, arguing that the agency was already doing its best to move families through detention quickly and that the facilities had been converted into short-term processing centers.
This is the second time Gee has ruled that detaining children violates parts of a 1997 settlement from an earlier case. The settlement requires minors to be placed with a relative or in appropriate non-secure custody within five days. If there is a large influx of minors, times may be longer, but children still must be released as expeditiously as possible, under the terms of the law.
Gee has countered that immigration officials “routinely failed to process as expeditiously as possible to place accompanied minors, and in some instances, may still be unnecessarily dragging their feet now.”
Peter Schey, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, said that the court's order "will protect refugee children and their mothers from lengthy and entirely senseless detention."
The government poured millions of dollars into two large detention centers in Texas after thousands of immigrant families, mostly mothers with children from Central America, crossed the Rio Grande into the U.S. last summer. Many have petitioned asylum after fleeing gang and domestic violence in their home countries.
Two centers outside San Antonio recently held more than 1,300 women and children combined. A third, smaller facility in Pennsylvania, held about 70 people. All three are overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement but managed by private prison operators.
Between September 2013 and October 2014, some 68,000 family members — mostly mothers with children in tow — were caught at the border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Between last October and June of this year, less than 27,000 have been apprehended, a drop authorities say is a result of better enforcement in both the U.S. and Mexico.
In her order Friday, Gee challenged Homeland Security's claim that drastically limiting or ending its family detention policy could spark another surge in illegal border crossings, calling this "speculative at best" and "fear-mongering."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Obama slapped down again by a Federal Judge:
California judge orders immigrant families released from detention
Published August 22, 2015 - FoxNews.comA federal judge in California on Friday ordered the government to release immigrant children from family detention centers “without unnecessary delay,” and with their mothers when possible, according to court papers.
California U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee refused the government’s request to reconsider her ruling in late July that children held in family detention centers after cross the US-Mexico border illegally must be released quickly.
Gee called the government’s latest arguments “repackaged and reheated.’ She found Homeland Security in beach of a longstanding legal agreement stipulating that immigrant children cannot be held in unlicensed facilities, and gave agency officials until October 23 to comply.
Homeland Security lawyers asked the judge to reconsider her ruling, arguing that the agency was already doing its best to move families through detention quickly and that the facilities had been converted into short-term processing centers.
This is the second time Gee has ruled that detaining children violates parts of a 1997 settlement from an earlier case. The settlement requires minors to be placed with a relative or in appropriate non-secure custody within five days. If there is a large influx of minors, times may be longer, but children still must be released as expeditiously as possible, under the terms of the law.
Gee has countered that immigration officials “routinely failed to process as expeditiously as possible to place accompanied minors, and in some instances, may still be unnecessarily dragging their feet now.”
Peter Schey, executive director of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law, said that the court's order "will protect refugee children and their mothers from lengthy and entirely senseless detention."
The government poured millions of dollars into two large detention centers in Texas after thousands of immigrant families, mostly mothers with children from Central America, crossed the Rio Grande into the U.S. last summer. Many have petitioned asylum after fleeing gang and domestic violence in their home countries.
Two centers outside San Antonio recently held more than 1,300 women and children combined. A third, smaller facility in Pennsylvania, held about 70 people. All three are overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement but managed by private prison operators.
Between September 2013 and October 2014, some 68,000 family members — mostly mothers with children in tow — were caught at the border, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Between last October and June of this year, less than 27,000 have been apprehended, a drop authorities say is a result of better enforcement in both the U.S. and Mexico.In her order Friday, Gee challenged Homeland Security's claim that drastically limiting or ending its family detention policy could spark another surge in illegal border crossings, calling this "speculative at best" and "fear-mongering."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tanks for that nice story!
