ICE family detention facilities running at 7% capacity during coronavirus pandemic

The government’s facilities that detain migrant children are running at just 7% capacity during coronavirus, officials revealed this week, as Homeland Security and the Health and Human Services Department work to try to prevent a devastating outbreak.

And those children who do test positive while in custody are getting first-rate treatment, the government told a federal judge, with schooling, arts and crafts and even access to the Disney+ streaming service, in Spanish.

Children who cross the border illegally with parents can be held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, while children who jump the border unaccompanied by a parent usually go straight to shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of Health and Human Services.

ICE has three family facilities and they are operating at just 7% of their capacity.

No migrant has contracted coronavirus while in one of them, the agency said in documents submitted this week to a federal court overseeing the matter. Five people did test positive when they arrived in ICE family custody, including three adults and two children.

ORR said its shelters are at just 6% capacity. Nine children in its care are dealing with a COVID-19 diagnosis, and most of them came in with the disease.

The data comes as the Trump administration battles in court with immigrant-rights activists, who have demanded a large-scale release of families, citing the pandemic.

ICE says it’s released some migrant families and is detaining others at a slower pace, which has helped keep the population down at the three family detention centers. The Berks facility in Pennsylvania is working at 20% capacity; the Karnes facility in Texas is at 9% capacity; and the South Texas Family Residential Center, by far the largest with 2,400 beds, has just 142 people, or just 6% of capacity.

But the agency has rebuffed calls to empty the facilities altogether.

U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee, an Obama appointee to a federal court in California, has been pushing ICE for releases, and ordered the agency to try to work out a process with the families and their lawyers.

But ICE appealed her ruling this week.

The agency says Judge Gee’s demand creates a tricky situation. If parents don’t agree to release their children to foster families, then ICE says it would either have to release the family as a whole — creating a perverse incentive for parents to bring children as a way to get out of detention — or else release the children without parents, and risk being accused of family separations.

ICE’s juvenile coordinator, Deane Dougherty, said the agency is waiting on guidance from Judge Gee.

“The court has not provided a remedy,” he wrote.

The administration is still reeling from the fallout of family separations in 2018, during the zero-tolerance border policy, which was a reaction to a surge of families after a previous ruling by Judge Gee that limited ICE to about 20 days’ custody for children who jumped the border with parents.

Overall illegal border crossing numbers at this point are substantially down compared to the surges of 2018 and 2019, thanks in large part to the pandemic.

The Trump administration has triggered a section of public health law to immediately return most migrants back across the border in a matter of hours.

But a small fraction of migrants are still being taken into custody — about 3,200 in July, out of about 38,000 total unauthorized migrants at the southwest border.

Thanks to the lower number of incoming migrants, ORR said its shelters for migrant children have seen their populations cut from more than 3,500 in mid-March to fewer than 1,000 as of the middle of this month.

The shelters serve as schools, clinics and entertainment centers for the children they house — and children in coronavirus quarantine get the same level of services.

The coordinator described the situation at one shelter: “The room is equipped with a twin size bed with colorful linens, a private in-room bathroom and child friendly artwork and decor. Each minor is able to draw with chalk, hang drawings and personalize their bedroom. Also, each child is provided a deck of playing cards, a journal to write in, a sketchpad, and a stress ball. Additionally, at their request, minors are provided with yarn for arts and crafts, materials to make key chains, puzzles, and coloring books with colored pencils.

“Religious material and an approved playlist of music is also offered if they choose. Depending on the interests of the minor, the shelter can also provide literature, dolls or other types of materials for arts and crafts (e.g. aluminum etching, beads for bracelets, threading, etc.). Additionally, the minors are offered approved options to watch movies, shows or videos at scheduled times. The shelter has a subscription to Disney+ and can access shows in Spanish.”