Families detained and deported
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Families detained and deported together under new policy
SAN ANTONIO -- Ten families were deported to Honduras under a new policy allowing federal authorities to speed the return of some illegal immigrant families, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Friday.
Of the 120 illegal immigrants flown back to Honduras from San Antonio on Thursday, 21 were part of families sent back under the new policy, ICE said in a news release.
Before leaving, the family members were detained for 10 days at the newly opened T. Don Hutto residential facility, a 500-bed facility in Williamson County designed to house illegal immigrant families caught by immigration authorities, officials said.
The new Department of Homeland Security policy tries to eliminate a practice called "catch and release" for some immigrants from countries other than Mexico. Families caught at the border were often released in the U.S. with only notices asking them to return for a court hearing.
Authorities say the practice posed a problem because smugglers would sometimes bring children across the border along with groups of strangers and try to pass the groups off as families.
"We hope this program serves as a deterrent to human smuggling," said Marc J. Moore, ICE field office director.
The change lets immigration authorities return undocumented migrants to their home countries without a hearing. Non-Mexican illegal immigrants who have spent less than two weeks in the U.S. and are apprehended within 100 miles of the border can be removed quicker as part of the new policy.
Since last September, the federal government has used the expedited removal policy on the Southwest border. The policy was expanded to the U.S.-Canadian border and all U.S. coastal areas this year.
After the opening of the Williamson County center on May 15, families caught at the border can be kept together until their deportation instead of being held at separate facilities.
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