SAN ANTONIO (AP) – Mothers with children are being released from Texas immigrant detention centers more quickly in the weeks since the nation’s top immigration official announced policy changes, with far more being given ankle-monitoring bracelets in lieu of paying bonds, according to immigration attorneys.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Richard Rocha wouldn’t confirm the uptick Tuesday or provide specific numbers of people being released. But he said that “going forward, ICE will generally not detain mothers with children” with a credible fear of persecution in their home countries, so long they can provide an address and are not deemed a national security or flight risk.
“This is a decision they should have made a long time ago,” said Jonathan Ryan, director of RAICES, the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, which offers legal help to detainees.
Ryan said his volunteers have seen an increase in the number of women and children at the downtown San Antonio bus station who have been released from two South Texas facilities where immigrants are detained after crossing illegally into the U.S. The volunteers also noticed an increase in the number of families needing a place to stay overnight and other assistance.
“We’ve seen ICE start to implement additional strategies for releasing people,” added Brian Hoffman, who is leading a volunteer lawyers project for the American Immigration Lawyers Association and other groups at the nation’s largest family detention center in Dilley, about 70 miles southwest of San Antonio.