{"id":594385,"date":"2018-06-22T08:00:36","date_gmt":"2018-06-22T14:00:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=594385"},"modified":"2018-06-22T08:54:38","modified_gmt":"2018-06-22T14:54:38","slug":"trump-wants-to-prosecute-all-illegal-border-crossings-without-splitting-up-families-that-will-be-a-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/06\/trump-wants-to-prosecute-all-illegal-border-crossings-without-splitting-up-families-that-will-be-a-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump wants to prosecute all illegal border crossings without splitting up families. That will be a challenge."},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_594389\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-594389\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Family_detention_center_Dilley_LS_TT-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"The South Texas Family Residential Center\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Family_detention_center_Dilley_LS_TT-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Family_detention_center_Dilley_LS_TT-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Family_detention_center_Dilley_LS_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Family_detention_center_Dilley_LS_TT-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Family_detention_center_Dilley_LS_TT.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Laura Skelding \/ for The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The South Texas Family Residential Center is an immigrant detention center in Dilley, about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">When President Donald Trump on Wednesday backed down from an immigration policy that separated migrant families, he pledged to continue his \u201czero tolerance\u201d approach: Parents would still be prosecuted for illegally crossing the border, but their families wouldn\u2019t be split up.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But legal and logistical challenges will make it exceedingly difficult for his administration to accomplish both goals.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">To do so, federal agencies need to find space for thousands of children and adults as they await criminal and civil immigration proceedings. And another federal agency must find a way to do so without running afoul of the law.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThe president has issued an executive order, and the agencies now need to figure out what they\u2019re supposed to do,\u201d said Mark Greenberg, former head of the U.S. Health and Human Services\u2019 Administration for Children and Families.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/06\/21\/trump-says-hell-prosecute-parents-without-splitting-families-will-be-c\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The government may already have acknowledged this challenge. A Customs and Border Protection official reportedly\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/national-security\/us-will-stop-prosecuting-parents-who-cross-the-border-illegally-with-children-official-says\/2018\/06\/21\/4902b194-7564-11e8-805c-4b67019fcfe4_story.html?utm_term=.4e018f30719e\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>\u00a0Thursday that the agency would stop referring all illegal border crossers for prosecution until it has the resources to keep them in custody, and according to immigration attorneys handling cases in El Paso,\u00a0some families who crossed the border into Texas will not be criminally charged because the government lacks facilities to house them together.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But federal officials say that the &#8220;zero tolerance&#8221; policy will remain in place. Trump&#8217;s order said\u00a0that families should be housed together in detention centers run by the Department of Homeland Security. And a bill championed by a majority of congressional Republicans has called for doing the same.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">If the government is to proceed with those plans, it first has to reckon with two major problems. One is a question of resources: The federal government operates three immigration detention facilities that are currently housing families, two in South Texas and one in Pennsylvania. The combined capacity of the Texas facilities is around 3,500, and they were already nearing that limit weeks ago, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/powerpost\/gop-leaders-voice-hope-that-bill-addressing-family-separations-will-pass-thursday\/2018\/06\/20\/cc79db9a-7480-11e8-b4b7-308400242c2e_story.html?utm_term=.c17b514b43ce\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">according to the Washington Post.<\/a> It\u2019s not immediately clear where the administration will place all the families it hopes to detain.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And the other is a legal concern stemming from a 1997 settlement agreement known as Flores.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">That effectively says that children cannot be detained in immigration detention centers for more than 20 days,\u00a0even if they are with their parents. Detaining immigrant families through their criminal proceedings, their civil deportation processes and the process of adjudicating their asylum cases would almost certainly take longer than that.<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The government admitted as much Thursday in a filing submitted at the president\u2019s behest to the federal court in California with the power to relax those restrictions.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cUnder current law and legal rulings, including this Court\u2019s, it is not possible for the U.S. government to detain families together during the pendency of their immigration proceedings,\u201d lawyers for the Department of Justice wrote. \u201cIt cannot be done.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">For that reason, the government argued it needs the court to modify the settlement in several major ways to accommodate \u201csignificant changes\u201d in immigration circumstances \u2014\u00a0namely \u201cthe ongoing, worsening influx of family units on the Southwest border.\u201d Experts expressed doubt that the court will heed the government\u2019s request.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">It\u2019s not clear whether the government will wait for a resolution from that court \u2014\u00a0likely to take weeks or months \u2014\u00a0or just go ahead with its plans, facing the legal ramifications later.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cThey\u2019re aware of the legal repercussions because they filed the papers today. They\u2019ve already filed the plea,\u201d said Barbara Hines, the former director of the University of Texas\u2019 law school\u2019s immigration clinic. \u201cI think at this point they are proceeding through the appropriate channels, which is trying to get the settlement modified. I don\u2019t think they\u2019ll be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Going ahead without court permission would be \u201coutrageous,\u201d Hines said.<\/p>\n<h3>Finding space for families<\/h3>\n<p>The administration faces challenges beyond the law.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven if there was no 20-day restriction, they would still face the constraint of not having very much capacity,\u201d Greenberg said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Between October and May, more than 59,000 people traveling with family members were apprehended along the border, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbp.gov\/newsroom\/stats\/usbp-sw-border-apprehensions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S. Customs and Border Protection<\/a>.\u00a0As the flow of migrants continues, the government will likely have to find a place to house all those families.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Expanding family detention is not going to give Trump what he wants,\u201d said Kevin Landy, who directed the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement\u2019s Office of Detention Policy and Planning under the Obama administration. \u201cDHS will not be able to detain and remove sufficient numbers of families to have any impact on the current influx.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The two family detention centers in Texas are operated under intergovernmental service agreements that allow for ICE to work with local jurisdictions, which hand operations over to private prison companies, CoreCivic and the GEO Group.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, an immigrants rights group, said the government goes through these agreements because they\u2019re faster than a direct contract with the operating companies. With the new federal policy and increased detention of families, he expects to see solicitations for new family centers.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But those structures still require environmental assessments and take time and money to build. The government could also look to temporary, more immediate fixes.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cIf DHS tries to build family detention facilities quickly and cheaply, the result will be awful,\u201d Landy said. \u201cThe worst case scenario is what we&#8217;re seeing in Tornillo.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When federal authorities needed more space for children, the government quickly erected a \u201ctent city\u201d in Tornillo, near El Paso. By setting up on federal property, the government was able to skirt state licensing requirements for detaining children, according to Greenberg. But it\u2019s unclear if family detention centers could be handled the same way.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they try to do that [for families], there will surely be litigation on what are the standards that have to apply,\u201d Greenberg said, adding that families require different services and accommodations than unaccompanied children.<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. government has set up a temporary shelter for families before, though. In 2014, when an influx of Central American families came to the United States to escape violent environments in their home countries, the Obama Administration converted a federal law enforcement training center in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.santafenewmexican.com\/news\/local_news\/new-mexico-residents-angry-over-housing-immigrants\/article_b1ce4620-5904-5dea-82c2-b99fda2e3245.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">small town of Artesia, New Mexico<\/a>, into a temporary family detention center, capable of holding up to 700 people.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The facility, which consisted of three barracks, held people as they were processed for deportation or sought asylum. The facility was\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2014\/12\/16\/us\/homeland-security-chief-opens-largest-immigration-detention-center-in-us.html?hp&amp;action=click&amp;pgtype=Homepage&amp;module=second-column-region&amp;region=top-news&amp;WT.nav=top-news&amp;_r=0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">closed months later<\/a>, when the families being held there were transferred to the newly opened, permanent detention center in Dilley.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Libal said if the government moves to construct more temporary or permanent detention centers, it will face harsh opposition.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In any community, \u201cThey\u2019re going to be fought every step of the way, in the courts and in town halls and in county commission meetings and in the streets,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Marilyn Haigh contributed reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\"><em>Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune&#8217;s journalism. Find a complete list of them\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/support-us\/corporate-sponsors\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/em><script async src=\"https:\/\/cdn.texastribune.org\/pixel\/dot.min.29c708b3d0da5d17a725.js\" integrity=\"sha384-8Xwf\/TlQnmHiajg1t3dn8w4qlF1rmV33o5NAQVXYu0T2q3rHV5579zrSmRjh+XnM\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/06\/21\/trump-says-hell-prosecute-parents-without-splitting-families-will-be-c\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A lack of space and a legal settlement stand in his administration&#8217;s way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":594389,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,3307],"class_list":["post-594385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-donald-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}