Baby Jails: The Fight to End the Incarceration of Refugee Children in America“I worked in a trailer that ICE had set aside for conversations between the women and the attorneys. While we talked, their children, most of whom seemed to be between three and eight years old, played with a few toys on the floor. It was hard for me to get my head around the idea of a jail full of toddlers, but there they were.” For decades, advocates for refugee children and families have fought to end the U.S. government’s practice of jailing children and families for months, or even years, until overburdened immigration courts could rule on their claims for asylum. Baby Jails is the history of that legal and political struggle. Philip G. Schrag, the director of Georgetown University’s asylum law clinic, takes readers through thirty years of conflict over which refugee advocates resisted the detention of migrant children. The saga began during the Reagan administration when 15-year-old Jenny Lisette Flores languished in a Los Angeles motel that the government had turned into a makeshift jail by draining the swimming pool, barring the windows, and surrounding the building with barbed wire. What became known as the Flores Settlement Agreement was still at issue years later, when the Trump administration resorted to the forced separation of families after the courts would not allow long-term jailing of the children. Schrag provides recommendations for the reform of a system that has brought anguish and trauma to thousands of parents and children. Provocative and timely, Baby Jails exposes the ongoing struggle between the U.S. government and immigrant advocates over the duration and conditions of confinement of children who seek safety in America. |
Contents
Introduction | 1 |
Jenny Flores 19851988 | 11 |
Good Enough 19881993 | 30 |
The Second Settlement 19931997 | 49 |
Congress Intervenes 19972002 | 61 |
Asylum 19801997 | 71 |
Hutto 20032007 | 83 |
The TVPRA 20072008 | 104 |
Litigation Proliferates 20152016 | 163 |
Berks 19982018 | 189 |
Trump 20172019 | 213 |
Conclusion | 269 |
Epilogue | 287 |
Important Laws and Lawsuits | 293 |
Notes | 301 |
| 373 | |
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ACLU adults Alien Appeals apply apprehended arrived Artesia asylum officers asylum seekers asylum-seekers Attorney Berks Berks County Border Patrol Brané Carlos Holguín Central American chil child claims Congress credible fear interviews custody decision detained detention facilities DFPS Donohoe dren El Salvador expedited removal family detention centers family separation federal filed Flores agreement Flores settlement gang government's Grassroots Leadership Guatemala hearing Hines Holguín Homeland Security Homeland Security Act Honduras Human Rights Human Rights Watch Hutto immigration court immigration judges incarcerated injunction issue jail Judge Gee July June June 20 Justice Karnes and Dilley lawyers license ment Mexican Mexico migrant children mothers Ninth Circuit Northern Triangle Obama parents percent plaintiffs President Protection regulation release reported rule Salvador shelter supra Supreme Court Texas tion Trump administration TVPRA UACs unaccompanied children unaccompanied minors undocumented United violence Washington Post women