Two young boys who arrived at the U.S.- Mexico border with their fathers to seek asylum in the U.S. have sued the U.S. government for prolonged separation from their dads and unnecessary detention at an international Children’s Rescue Center in Chicago.
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According to the lawsuit filed by two immigration lawyers in Chicago on behalf of the boys, ages 9 and 15, they are distraught over separation from their fathers which took place weeks ago at a Mexico detention center.
The lawyers representing the families have maintained that the ongoing detention of the two boys is a clear-cut violation of the Flores settlement, a 1997 federal consent decree that limits the amount of time the government can keep a child in detention and stipulates a series of protections for kids in U.S. custody.
Additionally, in holding the boys under custody, the U.S. government agency is trespassing the Fifth Amendment, “which does not and cannot permit the United States government to forcibly separate an asylum-seeking family, a father from a son, without justification or hearing," part of the official complaint cited.
The 9 -year-old boy who has been identified as C.D.A. in the court documents was detained around May 23 when they tried to enter the the United States. The documents stated the two were fleeing Brazil because the father owed US$10,000 to an organization engaged in human trafficking and didn’t have the money to pay them.
“Because he cannot pay this debt, he fears that if he is returned to Brazil, he and C.D.A. will be forced to work for the organization in indentured servitude,” the lawsuit pointed out. “(The father) does not believe he and his son could be safe anywhere in the country, as the group controls many people throughout Brazil. (He) could not go to the police for protection, because he believes the police will only help people with money.”
Per the court documents, family in Brazil who have spoken to the boy reported that he is “very scared, sad, and desperate to be reunited with his father." The father maintains that they would be in danger if they returned to Brazil, and is awaiting a credible fear interview with the U.S. immigration officers.
The other boy, identified as W.S.R., whose father was told that they would be separated for “two or three days, five at most,” and then they would be deported, has been able to have one brief call with his son over the course of several weeks, the lawsuit pointed out, adding, the reason for them seeking asylum is "the boss of a drug trafficking mafia threatened to kill” them. Since the drug boss believed that the two provided police with information that resulted in his arrest"
The fathers of the two boys are currently being held in detention centers in New Mexico and Texas, where they are awaiting interviews with asylum officers to present their cases.
The news also comes at a time of a major uproar against Trump's 'zero tolerance policy' through which over 2,000 immigrant families have been separated.
On Wednesday, the U.S. president pledged the government will cease separating families detained at the borders, but the administration is yet to clarify whether it will reunite nearly 2,300 children separated from their parents in recent weeks, leaving them in limbo.
Bridget Cambria, one of the attorneys for the two families, said the issue has become a pattern and is regularly occurring at the border. "Most of the people that we’ve heard from, they’ve all tried to present at a port of entry and they’re denied entry," Cambria told The Intercept.
"So that’s why they’re apprehended, primarily, because they’re seeking out a border officer to ask for protection."
According to the sources working on family separation cases, the U.S. officials confirmed Wednesday, the U.S. government has no dedicated system in place to reunite the thousands of families it has separated across the border.
"Reunification is always the ultimate goal of those entrusted with the care of unaccompanied alien children, and we are working toward that for those unaccompanied alien children currently in our custody," Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and Families Bureau said in a statement.
The Women’s Refugee Commission which routinely deals with the immigration system, recently pointed out, "the government can also place families into alternative to detention (ATD) programs. Unfortunately, the government eliminated one of its most promising and cost-effective ATD programs – the Family Case Management Program (FCMP) – last year, despite the fact that it is far more appropriate for families seeking asylum than either detention or separation."