On Monday, 13 activists, wanting an end to immigrant families being held in detention, were arrested for blocking Harrisburg traffic. On Wednesday, their cause was taken up by as many as 17 Democrats in the Senate. These included both Senators from New Jersey and Pennsylvania Senator, Bob Casey, who issued a letter calling for the release from detention of 17 immigrant families.
The open letter to Jeh Johnson, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, concerned 17 mothers and their 19 children. They are all held in prolonged detention at Pennsylvania’s Berks Family Residential Center, for more than a year in most of the cases. The Center, in Leesport, is one of four US facilities where women and children who have illegally entered the country are detained by the federal government. The other three are in Texas.
The 36 immigrants, which include children as young as two years old, fled violence in Central America and have claimed asylum in the US. Their cases are involved in a continuing appeal on immigration vetting procedures, which could see them remain in detention for another 12 months.
The detention of immigrant families was escalated by the Obama administration after an influx of undocumented immigrant Central American women and minors, in 2014. Many immigration advocates and human rights groups have slammed the practice as inhumane. Casey expressed his concerns about the health of mothers and children who have already been through immeasurable suffering.