Texas Grants Child Care License to Migrant Detention Center

The authorities in Texas have granted a child care license to a federal immigration detention center where thousands of mothers with their children have been confined, often for weeks and sometimes months.

News Story (Texas)

Julia Preston
New York Times (NYT)
May 2, 2016
READ THE FULL STORY HERE

Tags: Child Care, Children & Juvenile, Immigration Process

Organizations mentioned/involved: RAICES (Texas)


DETAILS

The Texas license strengthens the hand of the Obama administration as it tries to maneuver around a ruling from a federal judge in California, who ordered the rapid release of all migrant children and their parents and ruled that minors could not be held in secure facilities not licensed specifically for child care.

Officials at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services did not make a statement about the license, which was issued on Friday and posted on the agency’s website early on Monday. The initial license is temporary, lasting six months.

“If ever there was lipstick on a pig, this is it,” said Jonathan Ryan, the executive director of Raices, a legal services group in San Antonio that works with immigrants. “If you want a child care facility, you don’t contract with a for-profit prison company.”