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Camilo Montoya-Galvez Profile picture
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17 Nov, 9 tweets, 3 min read
New: In the past 5 weeks, US border agents placed 332 migrant children in ICE flights & expelled them without a hearing or asylum interview, per a court filing today.

The Trump admin. has argued that migrant minors and other border-crossers could spread COVID inside the US. 1/
While Pres. Trump's top DHS officials have said the border expulsions policy is designed to contain COVID-19, three former Trump admin. officials told me that the White House / Stephen Miller pressured the CDC to authorize it, overruling career experts. 2/
cbsnews.com/news/trump-adm…
Between Oct 1 and Nov 9, US officials placed at least 429 migrant children in expulsions proceedings.

373 of them were held in hotels—most were unaccompanied children. Dozens of other kids were held with their parents at an ICE family detention center before being expelled. 3/
A federal court has barred DHS from holding migrant children in hotels, *absent 3-day stays.*

So, DHS has been using this "loophole" in the court order to hold migrant children for ~2 days in border hotels, before summarily expelling them under the CDC-authorized policy. 4/
DHS says the only incidents in which kids were held for more than 2 days in hotels were caused by flight cancellations due to Hurricane Eta.

Those 19 kids were transferred to the US refugee agency, as required by a 2008 law the Trump admin. says is inoperative during COVID. 5/
The chart below shows how ICE has expanded its use of one family detention center to hold families with children that are slated to be expelled under the CDC order.

We reported this last month: cbsnews.com/news/ice-migra… 6/
Today's court filing also shows that 111 children were being detained with their parents at ICE's family detention centers as of last week. 40 of them had been held for 20 + days.

52 children are five or younger; 46 are between the ages of six and 13; and 13 are 14 or older. 7/
Keep in mind that the new 332 figure of expelled children does not include land expulsions of unaccompanied minors to Mexico.

Between March and early September, DHS expelled 8,800 unaccompanied migrant children; 6,500 were expulsions to Mexico. 8/
cbsnews.com/news/8800-migr…
The expulsions of migrant kids are being challenged in court. Will the incoming Biden admin. stop or limit this policy? That's TBD.

I've been told that the Biden team will direct the CDC to review the policy to ensure migrants can make asylum claims. end/
cbsnews.com/news/biden-imm…

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More from @camiloreports

Camilo Montoya-Galvez Profile picture
15 Nov
NEW — Another federal court has found that Pres. Trump's top DHS official Chad Wolf was unlawfully appointed, and that he did not have the authority to restrict DACA.

1.1 million immigrant teens and young adults may be eligible to request DACA. @CBSNews.
cbsnews.com/news/chad-wolf…
Judge Nicholas Garaufis is not the only federal judge to question the legality of Wolf's appointment — which @USGAO also found to be invalid.

Wolf signed a memo in July that shortened the duration of protections for DACA recipients and closed the program to new applicants.
While Garaufis said Wolf did not have the authority to make these restrictions, he did not explicitly order DHS to accept initial DACA petitions. Instead, he ordered parties to ask for relief.

@KarenTumlin, a lawyer representing DACA recipients, said she intends to do just that.
Read 5 tweets
Camilo Montoya-Galvez Profile picture
14 Nov
A federal judge in NY found that DHS head Chad Wolf "was not lawfully serving" as acting sec. when he limited DACA protections & closed the program to new applicants.

The judge also certified a class of immigrants who are or could be eligible for DACA under its 2012 guidelines.
Judge Nicholas Garaufis said Wolf did not have the authority to issue the July memo restricting DACA.

He directed parties to "advise of any forthcoming motions for relief in light of the court's decision."

Lawyers for DACA recipients are working on it:
There are undocumented immigrant teens and young adults across the US who are eligible for DACA on paper and meet the 2012 requirements, but have been locked out of the program, which offers protections from deportation.

Here are some of their stories:
cbsnews.com/news/daca-some…
Read 5 tweets
Camilo Montoya-Galvez Profile picture
11 Nov
NEW — President-elect Biden is set to start reversing Pres. Trump's immigration legacy.

The Biden team is planning to fully restore DACA, enact a 100-day freeze on deportations, limit ICE arrests, overturn green card restrictions and much more. @CBSNews.
cbsnews.com/news/biden-imm…
Mr. Biden will look to implement the 100-day deportations moratorium while his administration issues guidance narrowing who can be arrested and deported by ICE.

A source familiar with Mr. Biden's plans said new guidance would be designed to curb so-called "collateral arrests.”
Mr. Biden intends to end the Remain-in-Mexico border policy. But it remains unclear whether asylum-seekers will be allowed in.

A source familiar with Mr. Biden’s plans said the incoming admin. will void deals that allow the US to re-route asylum-seekers to Central America.
Read 11 tweets
Camilo Montoya-Galvez Profile picture
2 Nov
NEW — This is the story of 4 children expelled from the US under a COVID-19 policy that has suspended legal protections for migrant minors.

It's also a story of opposition within the CDC to authorize a border policy championed by the White House @CBSNews.
cbsnews.com/news/trump-adm…
The White House pressured the CDC to approve the expulsions policy, bypassing objections from experts who believed there was no public health basis to shutter US borders to migrants, asylum-seekers & children, 3 former Trump admin. officials told @CBSNews.
cbsnews.com/news/trump-adm…
"We were forced to do it," a former public health official said.

"Public health authority had never been used in this way. A lot of folks—myself included—felt that this was a misappropriation of that authority," another former public health official said.
cbsnews.com/news/trump-adm…
Read 10 tweets
Camilo Montoya-Galvez Profile picture
27 Oct
DHS No. 2 Ken Cuccinelli issued an official statement today denouncing U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee as an "activist" and accusing her of "preparing to order the separation" of migrant families in ICE detention.

I want to highlight a few points in a brief thread. 1/
Lawyers for detained migrant minors and the Justice Department filed a draft of a protocol earlier this month explaining that parents in ICE family detention can allow their children to be released to sponsors or continue to be in detention, together but indefinitely. 2/
Gee, who has ordered the government to comply with its binding obligation under the Flores settlement to seek the prompt release of migrant minors from detention, has yet to approve the protocol.

She ordered all parties yesterday to continue working to finalize the protocol. 3/
Read 7 tweets
Camilo Montoya-Galvez Profile picture
27 Oct
ICE agents are expanding "expedited removals" — deportations without court hearings — across the US.

This is the notice ICE will be providing immigrants placed in these proceedings. They will have to prove they have been continuously residing in the US prior to July 23, 2019.
ICE agents have been receiving training to enforce the new rules—which expand expedited removal beyond the previous 100-miles-from-the-border limit.

Below are training slides detailing how ICE expects to enforce the policy & how immigrants can contest their summary deportation:
Immigrants ICE seeks to summarily deport under this policy will have 72 hours to show—through financial, employment, school and personal documents—that they have been living in the US for 2 + years.

Mores training slides below, including on asylum screenings and release options.
Read 4 tweets

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