No, it's not the ‘Caravan.’
By
Sarah Okeson
Trump is about to
create a massive refugee crisis on the U.S.-Mexico border. Even as the administration riles its voter base with cooked-up stories of an invading caravan of Central Americans, the Department of Homeland Security is preparing to release thousands of asylum-seekers already here—stranding them in border towns from Texas to California.
Immigration
attorney Bridget Cambria said the mass release
could be an attempt to pressure to undo the Flores settlement that limits how
long our country can hold immigrant children in custody.
“They see an emergency coming with the caravan and they have a narrative they want to use to make sure we continue much higher enforcement and the No. 1 target is obviously Flores,” Cambria said. “If they can purport to have a surge they can use it as a reason to try to get rid of it all together.”
RAICES, a
Texas immigration legal services nonprofit, and other nonprofits are asking for
donations to help immigrants to our country with legal help and safe housing
and transportation.
The 1997 settlement
in Flores v. Reno prevents detaining minors
for longer than 20 days and has forced the Trump administration to release most
parents with their children. The agreement is named after Jenny Lisette Flores, then 15, who was
stripped searched and housed with adult men in government custody.
Trump wants to relax licensing requirements of
facilities where immigrant children are housed and hold them indefinitely with their
parents.
Families could be left
on the streets in border communities as the Trump administration stops helping
families arrange transportation and manufactures a humanitarian crisis.
Annunciation
House, a nonprofit in El Paso, Texas, is renting motel rooms to
house more people.
“This week we will
have received 1,300 people and so they’re
asking can we ramp up even beyond 1,300 which we want to do, but it’s really,
really challenging to do that,” said Ruben Garcia, the founder and director of
Annunciation House.
Sister Norma Pementel, executive director
of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley, is
talking with officials in McAllen, Texas about setting up tents. Her group is handling
as many as 500 people a day and is taking those they can’t accommodate to
Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, a Catholic sanctuary that can hold
up to 1,800 people.
ACTION BOX/What You Do About It
Tell the Trump administration to keep
protections for children immigrants from the Flores settlement.
Mail your comments to Debbie Seguin, assistant director, Office of Policy, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, 500 12thStreet SW, Washington, D.C. 20536. Please include DHS Docket No. ICEB-2018-0002. Comments must be postmarked by Nov. 6.
Comments can also be emailed to ICE.Regulations@ice.dhs.gov. Include DHS Docket No. ICEB-2018-0002 in the subject line of the message. Comments can also be submitted online.
Mail your comments to Debbie Seguin, assistant director, Office of Policy, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Homeland Security, 500 12thStreet SW, Washington, D.C. 20536. Please include DHS Docket No. ICEB-2018-0002. Comments must be postmarked by Nov. 6.
Comments can also be emailed to ICE.Regulations@ice.dhs.gov. Include DHS Docket No. ICEB-2018-0002 in the subject line of the message. Comments can also be submitted online.
Contact Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Facebook or Twitter, email her at DHSSecretary@hq.dhs.gov or mail her at Secretary of Homeland Security, Washington D.C. 20528.