House Democrats wrote the Trump administration this week, expressing their concern about reports that ICE or Immigration and Customs Enforcement "has been pursuing family separations at detention centers," which the agency has denied.

The letter which Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee sent referred to reports that parents from at least three detention centers of ICE were being given a choice to either stay detained with their children, or for the latter to be taken to the Office of Refugee Resettlement or ORR, or a sponsor.

The Democrats said they want the said practice to stop and that ICE provides them with a "detained legal explanation."

The letter indicated that, the Administration must cease using the present pandemic as a means for executing what it described as "illegal and inhumane immigration procedures."

In these difficult times, the Democrats said in the letter, the suffering of humans should be not be compounded by "locking up families in detention cells," or implanting distress in the migrant parents' hearts.

A Major Political Controversy

Family Separation turned out to be a political argument in 2018 when President Donald Trump's administration implemented the "zero tolerance" policy for migrants who came across the border.

As its response to a surge in migrants which consists mainly of family units, not to mention, the Flores court ruling that restricts the probable period of detention of children, the US government began to separate children from the adults accompanying them instead of having them released into the nation.

President Trump ultimately ordered for the practice to stop, and has since acted on the scrapping of the Flores agreement.

Nevertheless, ICE denied the allegations that it is giving the parents the so-called "binary choice." In a lengthy statement it released, the agency said it received a directive from the California District Court to release juvenile migrants who have appropriate guardians and are not considered "a flight risk" or danger to others or even themselves, safely and in a timely manner 

Also in its statement, ICE said, the court acknowledged that parents and not the administration should decide if the minors should be released to a suitable guardian or sponsor. 

And to comply with such a directive, ICE said it was necessitated to check with each of these juveniles, as well as their respective parents, in custody at FRCs or family residential centers to make distinct parole determinations "with respect to those juveniles."

"Chaotic Implementation"

Meanwhile, the House Democrats, in their letter, blamed the order's so-called "chaotic implementation" that they claimed, resulted in families and advocates to believe that the government was moving ahead with its long-planned "binary choice" 

In their letter, House Democrats blamed the "chaotic implementation" of the order that they say "led advocates and families to believe that the Administration was moving forward with its long-contemplated 'binary choice' rule, which utilizes the risk of unlawful move - indefinite detention of family - to force family separation, another immoral action.

ICE was asked to answer the letter by May 28, whether ICE is pressing migrant parents to choose between allowing their juveniles to be brought into the ORR custody and "waiving their children's rights under the Flores agreement."

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