Immigrant Children Due to Covid-19 - Federal Judge Ordered to Release

Dolly Gee a federal judge directed that children held for more than 20 days at Immigration. And Customs Enforcement family residential centers should be released by July 17 to “non-congregate settings”. Due to the unrelenting spread of Covid-19.

District Judge of California, US Dolly Gee issued the scathing order Friday afternoon. She said “Trump administration had failed to provide even the most basic health protections for children. And their families amid the pandemic”

As Covid-19 is spreading in two of the three facilities, Gee issued a deadline of July 17, she told “Children should be released with their parents or sent to sponsors”

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Public Health Crisis

“The Administration must stop using this public health crisis as a means for implementing unlawful and inhumane immigration policies. In these extraordinary times, human suffering need not be compounded by locking up families or instilling fear in the hearts of migrant parents,” Dolly Gee said.

The centers “are ‘on fire’ and there is no more time for half measures,” Gee said. She also added that ICE could use tracking devices on some parents if considered necessary in order to release them with their children.

“Although progress has been made, the Court is not surprised that [COVID-19] has arrived at both the [Family Residential Centers] and [Office of Refugee Resettlement] facilities, as health professionals have warned all along,” Gee wrote.

Scientists believe that children who are without underlying conditions can be virus careers and can expose to other vulnerable people. Concerns have been previously raised by medical experts since the beginning of the Covid-19 Pandemic.

In response to the rapid spread of viruses, states across the country were shutting down their economies, Gee ordered ICE to immediately release immigrant children from custody or explain why they must continue to be detained. She again ordered ICE in April, to conduct individualized release assessments for children in custody.