A Catastrophic Step Backwards: Children Do Not Belong in Immigration Jails

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Tuesday, March 7, 2023 

Media Contact: media@theyoungcenter.org 

Washington D.C.— Yesterday, several reports surfaced indicating that the Biden Administration is considering re-opening immigrant family jails. The last immigration jail for families closed in 2021. Jailing families is one of several tactics used by the last three administrations to try to stop people from seeking asylum—which is their legal right—at our border. The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights believes that any return to immigrant family jails will hurt children and their families and undermine the rule of law.  

Jennifer Nagda, Chief Programs Officer at the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights, said: 

“Jailing families for exercising their right to seek asylum flies in the face of a law created to protect people at risk of persecution because of their race, religion, political opinion, nationality, or membership in a group. Jails deprive people of a fair process for seeking asylum: it is significantly harder to find a lawyer and to develop the evidence needed to prove your case when you are jailed.

But jailing asylum-seekers also harms children. Countless health experts have explained why throwing children in jail is harmful to both their short- and long-term well-being.  Even the federal government’s own Advisory Committee—appointed by then Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson—urged the United States to end family jails, explaining that: 

‘[D]etention is generally neither appropriate nor necessary for families—and . . . detention or the separation of families for purposes of immigration enforcement or management are never in the best interests of children. DHS should discontinue the general use of family detention . . . ‘ 

The fact that the Biden administration is considering reinstating family detention is a catastrophic step backwards from its commitment to protect the health, safety, and well-being of immigrant children and their families. We urge the administration to immediately abandon the idea of family jails, and to instead create processes to welcome asylum-seekers, to protect, rather than damage, the health of immigrant children, and to ensure that everyone has a fair chance to seek protection.  

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The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights is a non-profit organization that protects and advances the rights and best interests of immigrant children and advocates for an immigration system that treats children as children first. For press inquiries, please contact Anabel Mendoza at media@theyoungcenter.org