The Trump administration and congressional Republicans have renewed their calls for a change to a law that restricts the amount of time the government can detain migrant children who crossed the border illegally, Talking Points Memo reports.
An official with Immigration Customs Enforcement appeared before Congress on Tuesday, again asking that feds be allowed to hold migrant families indefinitely for the duration of their asylum cases, which could take years.
Currently, federal law says children under 18 cannot be held longer than 20 days, a restriction that has hamstrung the administration and forced the separation of families at the border. But the flip side is the "catch and release" of illegals in the hopes that they return for their hearings.
Republican senators on Tuesday called for the repeal of "Flores" settlement, which provides protections for immigrant children, and Republicans have introduced multiple bills that would repeal the decades-old law.
"There is widespread agreement in Congress, on both sides of the political aisle, that families should not be separated, that the best place for children is with their parents,” TPM quoted Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.
“At the same time, it’s imperative that we enforce the law, that we not be adopting policies that effectively mandate 'catch and release' because that only serves to attract more people here illegally," Cruz said.
Further, there is dispute as to what the actual percentage is of illegals who return for their hearings after "catch and release."
An ICE official told Congress on Tuesday that only "a small percentage" of parolees return for their hearing, but a federal judge earlier this month wrote that "86 percent of family detainees attended all of their court hearings" between 2001 and 2016.
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