Hirono Urges President Biden Against the Use of Family Detention

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Mazie K. Hirono (D-HI), member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent a letter to President Biden raising concerns over reports that his Administration is considering a return to the ineffective and inhumane practice of detaining migrant families, after previously putting an end to family detention in December 2021. The letter, led by Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), was also signed by 17 of Senator Hirono’s Senate colleagues, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY).

The Senators wrote, “Under both the Obama and Trump Administrations, family detention had disastrous effects on migrant families and children, without any corresponding improvement in border security or deterrence. We urge you to learn from the mistakes of your predecessors and abandon any plans to implement this failed policy.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics found that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) facilities for detaining families did “not meet the basic standards for the care of children in residential settings.” The American Medical Association has long opposed “family immigration detention, separation of children from their parents in detention, and any plans to expand these detention centers because of the negative health consequences that detention has on both children and their parents.” Additionally, two of DHS’s own medical consultants concluded—after a series of ten investigations during both the Obama and Trump Administrations—that DHS family detention centers posed “a high risk of harm to children and their families.”

“We understand that your Administration faces significant challenges—particularly in light of Congressional failure to pass immigration reform—to manage an influx of asylum seekers arriving at our southern border. However, the recent past has taught us that family detention is both morally reprehensible and ineffective as an immigration management tool.  We look forward to working closely with your Administration on more thoughtful and humane responses to such challenges,” the Senators continued.

In the letter, the Senators cite that family detention does not appear to have deterred desperate families from attempting to come to the United States—instead, the implementation of this policy corresponded with an increase in unique encounters of children and individuals in families “by an average of 57 percent per year between 2015 and 2019.” DHS spent more than $866 million over a three-year period to maintain space to detain just over 3,000 family units per year. 

The Senators also offered alternatives such as case management programs, which have proven to be far more humane and cost-effective than detention. Congress recently appropriated $20 million dollars to DHS to implement alternatives to detention to ensure that families, children, and other individuals seeking asylum comply with the law, without harming children and families.

In addition to Senators Hirono, Durbin, and Schumer, the letter was signed by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Alex Padilla (D-CA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Peter Welch (D-VT), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Ben Cardin (D-MD), Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Tim Kaine (D-VA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), and Tina Smith (D-MN).

The full text of the letter is available here.

Senator Hirono has consistently advocated against the use of family detention centers. In 2019, she led a hearing to investigate the deteriorating conditions at the United States’ southern border, as well as reports of abuse and cruelty in border detention facilities. Senator Hirono has also introduced several bills to address the conditions at the southern border including legislation to expand protections for vulnerable migrant children while they are in the custody of Customs and Border Protection. She also introduced the Fair Day in Court for Kids Act to provide unaccompanied children with access to legal representation when they appear in removal proceedings before an immigration judge. Senator Hirono also cosponsored legislation introduced in 2019 to end the Trump administration’s treatment of children at the U.S.-Mexico border and reform how children fleeing persecution are treated when they arrive at the border to claim asylum.

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