More than 900 children have been held in Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities beyond a court-imposed 20-day limit, according to a new report.
Under the 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement, the U.S. government is not supposed to hold children in immigration detention facilities any longer than is reasonably needed to arrange their prompt release or deportation. Federal courts have interpreted that “reasonable” time limit to be 20 days.
But some children imprisoned by ICE are spending much longer — some more than twice as long — locked up, according to an NBC News report.
The majority of the children detained by ICE are being held at the Dilley Immigration Processing Center in South Texas.
So many children have been kept beyond the 20-day mark that children’s rights advocates visiting the detention center have stopped using the number as a benchmark.
“We’ve started to use 100 days as a benchmark because so many children are exceeding 20 days,” Leecia Welch, the chief legal director at advocacy group Children’s Rights, told the Associated Press.
She said she visits the facility regularly and noted that in February, she counted more than 30 children who had been held for more than 100 days.
According to NBC’s report, approximately 270 of the children currently in ICE custody have been detained for more than 40 days.
NBC News spoke to a family of Russian immigrants who were arrested at the border and shipped to the Dilley detention center. The couple and their two young children — one 5 years old — were detained and were reportedly told that since their children were with them, they wouldn’t be held more than 20 days.
But 20 days came and passed. Aleksei — whose last name was withheld over fears of retaliation should he be sent back to Russia — asked his captors why his family hadn’t been released after 20 days, and he was given a variety of answers. One told him — erroneously — that the 20-day rule was no longer in effect.
Another told Aleksei he’d have to take it up with his boss. When Aleksei asked who his boss was, the guard at Dilley allegedly said he didn’t know.
“Maybe President Trump,” the guard allegedly said.
Other families are fighting for their freedom as well.
The El Gamal family, who have been in federal custody since last summer, have been detained longer than any other family at the Dilley facility since it reopened last year, when Trump returned to office, according to their lawyer.
