Long-term detention for migrant families is on its way out, Department of Homeland Security secretary Johnson announced Wednesday.
Secretary Johnson said he has approved a plan that would set reasonable bond amounts for migrant families who can demonstrate to officials in interviews that they have reason to fear persecution in their home countries.
"I have reached the conclusion that we must make substantial changes in our detention practices with respect to families with children," Johnson
said in a statement. "In short, once a family has established eligibility for asylum or other relief under our laws, long-term detention is an inefficient use of our resources and should be discontinued."
Several hundred migrant families are currently being held in two facilities in Texas and one in Pennsylvania. Immigration officials said a total of 1,834 individuals were detained in the three centers as of the end of last month.
Johnson said in the future family detention centers would be used for shorter-term stays; “within a reasonable time-frame,” families would either begin the process of applying for asylum, or they would be deported.
The plan follows a series of measures Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced in May designed to improve the way family residential centers are run. The reforms as a whole reflect an increase in the number of undocumented immigrants coming into the United States as families.
During the height of the migrant crisis, immigration officials apprehended more than 60,000 families attempting to enter the US illegally. Most came from Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
Immigration advocates and attorneys criticized the DHS’s plan for allowing family detention to continue at all.
