Thread: I.C.E. Detention center receives child care license from state of Texas

Detention center receives child care license from state of Texas

Nuri Vallbona | Jun. 10, 2015

AUSTIN, TEXAS A corrections corporation that manages a family detention center for Immigration and Customs Enforcement received a child care license from the state of Texas in May, raising questions among attorneys and activists as to whether the company is trying to comply with a court ruling forbidding the detention of minor children in unlicensed facilities.

A second company is still awaiting approval for its license, according to Patrick Crimmins, media relations manager of the Texas Department of Family Protective Services, the department that oversees the licensing.

The applications were filed by the Corrections Corporation of America for the South Texas Residential Center in Dilley, Texas, and by GEO Group for the Karnes County Residential Center in Karnes City, Texas. Both facilities, which house children typically accompanied by their mothers, paid a $35 application fee in addition to background check costs.

“Dilley got its Temporary Shelter Program (TSP) certificate on May 22 for a capacity of 24,” Crimmins said in an email. “On Karnes City, we just received their application June 2. The inspection is scheduled for June 16.”

The move to apply for licensing puzzled activists and attorneys who wondered if this is an attempt to comply with the 1997 Flores v. Meese Settlement Agreement that says unaccompanied minors may not be held in restrictive unlicensed facilities.

“I think that they filed the applications first as a Band-Aid effort, as an attempt to be able to say that they’ve received some kind of licensing,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of RAICES, a non-profit organization that provides legal representation to immigrants. RAICES, which means “roots” in Spanish, stands for Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.

Family detention had all but ended in 2009, but when large numbers of immigrants came across the southern border last year, overwhelmed immigration officials revived the practice. Attorneys for the U.S. government filed a motion in February to amend the Flores Settlement saying the influx of immigrants made it "impossible to mandate full and strict compliance with all terms of the nearly two decades-old agreement while expecting DHS to fulfill its core function of protecting the public safety and enforcing U.S. immigration laws."

Lawyers representing detainees countered by filing a motion to enforce the settlement leading to a tentative ruling in April by Judge Dolly Gee of the Ninth Circuit in Central California. "The court's tentative order indicated that the court agreed with plaintiffs that putting children in secure facilities that are not licensed by the state violated the language and spirit of the settlement agreement," said a memo outlining the ruling and circulated to attorneys and advocates representing detained clients.

Both sides in the case are now working out a plan to implement Gee’s ruling and are expected to complete the process by mid-June.

But corrections companies did not appear to be seeking a broad childcare license, rather one for a small subset of children in detention, according to the applications. The Corrections Corporation of America was granted a temporary shelter day care license in its Dilley center for the supervision of 24 children, Crimmins said. The license applies to children whose mothers need to attend court hearings or visit their doctors, according to the application. It does not mention extended overnight care.

“Neither Karnes nor Dilley have applied for a license from Residential Child Care Licensing (RCCL) — that is separate from a day care license,” Crimmins said. Residential treatment centers, emergency shelters or child-placing agencies are examples of the types of facilities that would fall under that type of license.

“I can tell you that in September 2014, Karnes submitted a request that they be exempt from residential child care licensing regulations, which we granted,” Crimmins said. It was unclear why the center in Karnes is exempt while the one in Dilley is not.

When asked about the license applications, both companies issued statements.

“CCA sought and obtained this licensure for the facility pursuant to the contractual requirements of our government partner, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE),” said Steve Owen, managing director of communication for Corrections Corporation of America.

“GEO has and will continue to work in conjunction with ICE to ensure that the Center adheres to all pertinent standards and requirements,” said Pablo Paez, vice president for corporate relations.

Both companies referred further questions to ICE.

While ICE did not reply to requests for comment, in the past it has issued statements about the quality of its care for residents. "We are constantly assessing our ability to provide care for those in our custody that meets the highest standards, and we welcome the ongoing dialogue with stakeholders to ensure that we are transparent and consistent in our approach," said ICE press secretary Gillian M. Christensen.

Ryan and other advocates do not think this move satisfies the requirement set forth in the Flores Settlement Agreement.

“Flores speaks to the entirety of the custodial setting environment,” Ryan said referring to the 24/7 operation of family detention centers.

“Cordoning off a small area within it that is deemed child appropriate by no means sanctions the remaining 99.9 percent of the facility.”

Michelle Mendez, training and legal support attorney with the Catholic Legal Immigration Network thought it was more of a practical solution.

“It’s hard to tell why they’re moving forward with this, but it seems to be more beneficial for the staff than it does for the women and the children because fewer children in the courtroom is going to be easier on the staff; it’s going to be easier on the court that is presiding over the hearings for the judges.”

http://ncronline.org/news/politics/d...se-state-texas

ICE is now running day care centers? SERIOUSLY? You're supposed to be deporting illegal aliens not teaching them their ABCs or how to draw pictures.

Our government is insane.

Federal judge ruled immigrant children cannot be held in secure facilities

(If you get a child care license they can stay there.)

COURT RULING COULD SHUT DOWN FEDS’ DETENTION CENTERS FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

AP Photo/Seth Robbins

by BREITBART NEWS 7 Jun 2015

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — After tens of thousands of migrant families, most from Central America, crossed the Rio Grande into Texas last summer, the government poured millions of dollars into two large detention centers meant to hold women and children — and keep more from coming.

But as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement expands the centers to make space for the next wave of arrivals, the agency faces legal and political challenges that could shut them down. And a new flow of migrants raises questions as to whether the strategy has deterred migration at all.

One center is a purpose-built, 50-acre campus in Dilley, an hour’s drive southwest of San Antonio. Another, smaller center is tucked among derricks in Karnes City. They will be able to house some 3,400 migrants once they reach full capacity, just a fraction of those crossing, leaving ICE with few options besides releasing many with notices to appear in court, as it did in the past.

Some 130 House Democrats and 33 senators have called on the government to halt family detention, while a federal judge has tentatively ruled that the policy violates parts of an 18-year-old court settlement that says immigrant children cannot be held in secure facilities. ICE responded by pledging to improve its centers while it awaits the judge’s ruling.

“We are moving in the direction of closing these centers down,” said Jonathan Ryan, executive director of the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.

In April, Judge Dolly Gee tentatively ruled that family detention violates parts of a 1997 settlement in a case known as Flores V. Meese. The settlement stipulates migrant children must be released only to foster care, relatives or — if they must be held — in the least restrictive environment possible in facilities licensed to care for children.

Gee placed her ruling on hold and kept it secret so that government and immigration lawyers can try to negotiate a solution by mid-June. But a memo describing the ruling by Carlos Holguin, an attorney with the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in California, says Gee agreed that the settlement applied to all minors in immigration custody, including those accompanied by a parent, and found the new detention facilities not licensed to care for children.

ICE director Sarah Saldana responded to the court in a statement saying that the agency would review cases of families detained more than 90 days, increase oversight and explore ways to improve conditions. “We understand the unique and sensitive nature of detaining families,” she said.

In making its case for detention last year, the Department of Homeland Security argued that the centers were necessary to stamp out a widespread belief among migrants that the government was doling out “permisos” for them to stay, actually notices to appear in court.

According to the memo, Gee questioned whether the centers had served that purpose. Holguin wrote that the court found it “astonishing” that immigration authorities had adopted a policy demanding such expensive infrastructure without solid evidence that building it would discourage illegal migration.

Nearly 17,000 families have already been caught at the border during the first seven months of this fiscal year, which began in October.

Family detention isn’t cheap. An ICE official said it costs $300 per day for each woman or child housed at Dilley. At a capacity of 2,400 people, it will cost the federal government $720,000 a day, or nearly $263 million a year. The smaller detention center in Karnes costs ICE $160 per detainee per day and is expected to have 1,000 beds by year’s end. The only other family detention center is in Berks County, Pennsylvania. For-profit prison operators manage all three facilities overseen by ICE.

Women with children caught entering the country illegally can be released or placed in detention. ICE says its decisions to detain or not depend on factors that include bed space and the ages and sexes of children.

The Texas centers provide considerable freedom of movement and boast amenities — Dilley has a huge indoor gym, soccer field and classrooms with touch-screen TVs and computers and the Karnes center has a library stocked with bilingual children’s books. But detainees would much rather have been released on the promise to show up in court, as happened to Jeysel Amaya.

Amaya, 24, said she left El Salvador because gang members “were threatening me and my sister, because my sister is 16 and (one) wanted to go with her.”

In late April, she headed for the bus station in the border city of McAllen, her 4-month old daughter strapped to her chest in the same cloth sling she used throughout their 2,000-mile journey, and carrying a notice to show up in court near relatives in Los Angeles.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...al-immigrants/

The thought of the cost of this is nauseating. Deport them. Roll their asses out of here. What do you think we're paying you to do? Babysit illegal aliens? Are you nuts? Wackos? Scum Bags? Pork Chops? Pulled Pork? What are you? Whatever you are in DHS, you are not thinking logical competent Americans.

You're a bunch of idiots and dingle-berries.

Immigrant Family Detention Center Granted Child-Care License

• By JUAN A. LOZANO, ASSOCIATED PRESS

HOUSTON — May 3, 2016, 4:30 PM ET


One of the nation's largest detention centers for families caught crossing the southern U.S. border has received a temporary residential child-care license amid discussions over whether the federal government will keep using such facilities.

The Texas Department of Family and Protective Services granted the six-month license last week to the 500-bed facility in Karnes City, southeast of San Antonio, agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said Tuesday. The private prison firm that runs the facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement had requested it after a federal judge said last year that kids couldn't stay in the centers because they weren't approved to care for children.

GEO Group Inc. obtained its license for the Karnes City facility as apprehensions of unaccompanied immigrant children along the southwest border increased by 78 percent for the period from Oct. 1 through March 31 compared to a year earlier, and the number of apprehensions of families more than doubled.

"Licensure of the Karnes County Residential Center ... represents an important step forward in ICE's commitment to enhancing oversight and transparency of its family residential centers, which play an important role in maintaining the integrity of our immigration system," ICE spokeswoman Jennifer Elzea said in an email Tuesday.

The Karnes City facility and a 2,400-bed facility in Dilley, also located south of San Antonio, opened in 2014 in response to the arrival of tens of thousands of mothers and children from Central America. The policy of detaining children has faced criticism from immigrant advocates, who cite reports of inadequate medical care and other issues as reasons the state shouldn't issue child-care licenses to the facilities.

Immigrant advocates also say minimum standards have been lowered in order to license these detention centers and the facilities don't provide good environments for promoting child welfare.

But ICE has indicated in recent months that it's looking to change how it houses families and children caught along the U.S.-Mexico border.

It has sought potential service providers to run state-licensed residential care facilities for families and children held by the agency, ideally in Arizona, California, New Mexico and/or Texas. ICE asked for information for facilities that could accommodate up to 1,000 beds "which could be provided at a single location, but would ideally be comprised of several service locations with up to 500 beds at each facility."

Asked during a congressional hearing in March if her agency would stop using Karnes and Dilley for family detention in fiscal year 2017, ICE director Sarah Saldaña said it probably would convert Karnes into housing for adult males and possibly also children. She said the facility at Dilley "will continue to exist."

An inspection at the Karnes facility in March before the temporary license was granted found six deficiencies. Those included: on one occasion observing a child in a bedroom without his or her mother or a staff member present, and discovering that an employee was not qualified for their position.

The deficiencies were corrected before the temporary license was issued, Crimmins said. He said during the six-month term of the temporary license, at least three unannounced inspections of Karnes would take place.

If any problems are found, they would need to be addressed before a permanent license could be issued.

A similar application for a child-care license for the Dilley facility, which is run by Corrections Corporation of America, is still pending, Crimmins said.

An inspection in April of that facility found 12 deficiencies. Those included: all playgrounds showing worn AstroTurf and exposed seams creating a potential tripping hazard, and unsecured medical supplies such as scalpels and used syringes seen on top of counters.

No temporary license for the Dilley facility will be issued until these problems are corrected, Crimmins said.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/i...cense-38848160

judy
I like your post
South bx