WASHINGTON.— A federal court this Wednesday temporarily suspended the deportation of 28 children and their parents, who remain in the custody of the Immigration and Customs Office (ICE, for its acronym in English) in Texas and Pennsylvania, while activists urged their implementation. freedom immediately.
The ruling is temporary while an emergency motion in favor of the families in question is being evaluated, and the court has given the federal government until December 1 to respond.
The 28 children and their 23 families, housed in ICE detention centers in Dilley, Texas, and Berks, Pennsylvania, remain in danger of deportation.
That is because they entered the United States while a measure, now declared illegal, was in force that prohibited asylum to those who first transit through a third country.
"The purpose of this administrative extension is that the court has sufficient opportunity to evaluate the emergency motion, and should not be interpreted in any way as an opinion on the merits of that motion," reads the brief order signed by three judges of the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia.
Experts consulted today by Noticias Telemundo affirmed that this victory, although temporary, gives them a break to continue fighting to protect minors,
some of whom have been detained for almost a year and a half.
“We appreciate this extension for our clients and we hope we can fully vindicate their rights.
All deportation orders against our clients were issued based on Steven Miller policies that have been overturned time and time again in the courts, ”said attorney Amy Maldonado, who represents families in court.
Maldonado was referring to the president's top political adviser, Donald Trump, who has crafted some of the most repressive policies against immigrants, including the separation of families.
"Here we are talking about
children that the United States is returning to persecution and torture,
using illegal deportation orders," argued the lawyer.
For her part, Jasmine Rivera, coordinator of ShutDownBerksCoalition, a coalition seeking the permanent closure of the ICE detention center in Berks, warned that the restriction "could be lifted as soon as next week."
The court has only put a pause on deportations, but "we will not rest until these families are free and safe," Rivera added.
For his part, David Bennion, a lawyer for the Free Migration Project group, said that it is "critically important" that the immigrant community and political leaders "do not take their eyes off ICE, and fight for these families."
"We don't want these families to be forgotten and deported once the television cameras are turned off" and the media coverage ends, said Bennion, who has represented the families in state courts.
["Help us get out of here," ask these children in ICE detention centers without the right to a lawyer or asylum]
Accompanied by some legislators, the activists held a bilingual protest in front of the ICE office in Philadelphia as part of a pressure campaign they maintain on social networks to achieve the release of the families.
During the meeting, the activists read letters from some of the minors detained by ICE in Berks, including one who has been incarcerated for 13 months.
On the eve of the Thanksgiving holiday, ICE has already deported numerous Haitian families, adding to the 1,300 it deported last month.
Both Rivera and Bennion claimed that ICE has violated the protections of these migrants, including regulations on the asylum process, and the 1997 Flores Agreement and a Pennsylvania state law prohibiting the prolonged detention of minors.
ICE told Noticias Telemundo last week that these families have had access to due process and, once all their legal remedies are exhausted, they will have to be deported.
But Rivera refuted the arguments of ICE, which he accused of exercising "terrorism" against immigrant families.
“ICE is lying, and
these deportations are illegal
.
This is the same agency that took babies from their mothers' arms, and that now takes advantage of the post-election period in which apparently nobody is paying attention to it, ”Rivera stressed.
The activist highlighted that among the detained families are a Haitian woman who suffered a miscarriage and a Haitian immigrant who fled his country after surviving an attack.
Since taking office in January 2017, Trump has tightened the fence on undocumented immigrants and imposed restrictions on illegal immigration, the asylum process, and the entry of refugees.
[The number of migrant children who are still separated from their families is growing: there are 666 pending to find their parents]
All these measures have been framed in his policy of "
putting the United States first
" and allegedly defending the interests of American workers.
They sell talisman that they claim protects immigrants from Trump and guarantees travel to the United States.
Nov. 16, 202002: 21
Activists from the immigrant community have urged the courts to stop the deportation of families in Dilley and Berks and give them a chance to defend their asylum cases because they did not have access to due process when they were detained at the southern border.
Last Wednesday, the Trump Administration deported 33 children to Guatemala who had entered illegally without the company of their parents, the same day that federal judge Emmet Sullivan blocked their expulsion.
Like other activists in the immigrant community, Rivera urged the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden to make good on his promise to reverse Trump's harmful immigration policies, especially the detention and deportation of asylum seekers.
