By Mel Wilson, NASW Senior Policy Adviser
The Trump Administration on March 5 announced it is bringing back the already discredited policy of detaining immigrant and migrant families together at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.
The plan is to detain up to 2,400 families in Dilley. The decision is both alarming and horrible. It represents a return of one of the nation’s immigration policies which – at times – bordered on being inhumane. Family detention policy, which has not been used in four years, has been widely condemned.
Yet, in another demonstration of its insensitivity to human needs, the Trump administration has decided to go full speed ahead with expanding immigration detention. In fact, the expansion at Dilley – which is operated by a private contractor CoreCivic – is only one of many other family detention centers planned at least through 2025.
For the most part, the Biden administration did not use family detention – probably because of the problematic history of such facilities. Family detention centers have documented history of negligence and abuse, inadequate medical and mental health care, and inappropriate disciplinary tactics, including threats to separate families if children misbehave.
Numerous studies have shown the psychologically damaging effects of family detention. Medical and early childhood trauma professionals have noted that family detention is especially harmful to children – leading to emotional and mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and weight loss, among other physical and behavioral health problems.
It is important to mention that the increase in family detention is directly associated with the administration’s failure to round up tens of thousands of “criminals” who they claimed were the primary target of mass deportation. It was reported the Trump was upset that the high numbers did not pan out. This was followed by subsequent reports that Department of Homeland Security had amended its mass deportation targets to go after migrant and immigrant families – undoubtedly to increase the number of people detained by ICE .
Assuming those reports are correct, it is more grating that the Trump administration would choose to a politically motivated numbers game while disregarding the injustices it is perpetrating on migrant families – especially school-aged children. This is what makes Trump’s return to family detention such an appalling idea.
