Several immigrant rights groups are irate by a new option the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is showing the migrant parents-it tells them to either separate from their child or indefinitely stay together in imprisonment.

Beginning Thursday, the organizations claim, ICE started to distribute a form in all of its family detention centers allowing parents to apply for the release of their minor sons or daughters. 

The form, as indicated in the copy which NBC News was able to obtain, that, "it is in compliance with the Flores court agreement," prohibiting ICE detaining minors for over 20 days.

The released children are then placed with sponsors, members of their family, or placed under the Department of Health and Human Services' custody.

Incidentally, as reported in the same news report, the US Government faced strong criticism for a "Zero Tolerance policy in 2018" in which undocumented minors were separated from their parents who had unlawfully crossed order.

The policy was officially instigated in May 2018 although it was reversed following an outcry in June, the same year.

"Voluntary Concept"

The present so-called "voluntary concept" was formerly called "binary choice," although it has never been completely executed. 

To date, lawyers who represent clients in ICE family detention claim, parents may be convinced to separate from their children if they are worried about them being exposed to COVID-19 while they are detained.

The timing, Dilley Pro Bono Project director Shayln Fluharty said, "Is no coincidence." The Dilly Pro Bono Project offers legal services for detained families in Dilley, Texas.

Recently, a federal judge told ICE it did not comply with the Flores agreement. More so, the forms, Fluharty added, "are a way for ICE to show that these parents" have opted to "keep their minor kids in detention."

A spokesperson for ICE said, the agency is exploring all options to respond to the most recent order of Judge Gee specifying that ICE release children under its custody safely, who do not posture a flight risk or public safety, to sponsors within the United States.

ICE keeps on working to execute the requirements of the directive and has not instigated what has been known as the "binary choice" at present.

Great Source for COVID-19 Infections

Ice detention centers, holding immigrants in huge open-floor cells that have numerous detainees who share the same living area, toilet, and sink, are turning to be a great source for infections of COVID-19.

In a report New York Times released, 85 COVID-19 cases in ICE detention in New Jersey and New York have been recorded and reported.

In addition, on May 7, ICE confirmed the first death from COVID-19 of a detained migrant. The said migrant was at the only adult detention facility located in Otay Mesa, California.

A group advocating for the reunion of separated migrant families, Family Together, tweeted late this week saying ICE just gave families a choice that day: that they'd let their children go if they opt to give them up.

The advocacy group though, finds the said choice, "horrific," considering that the entire world is currently experiencing amid the pandemic.

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