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Newly leaked documents reveal that 1-year-old migrants were kept in US hotels before deportation.
Obtained by The Associated Press, the documents show that Hampton Inn & Suites hotels in Texas and Arizona were used 186 times by a private contractor for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to hold minors.
ICE uses the private contractor MVM Inc. to “transport single minors to hotels and to ensure each minor remains safe and secure while in this temporary housing,”
“They’ve created a shadow system in which there’s no accountability for expelling very young children,” Leecia Welch, an attorney at the nonprofit National Center for Youth Law, told the AP. “There really aren’t enough words to describe what a disgraceful example of sacrificing children this is to advance heartless immigration policies.”
On March 31, ICE extended its contract with MVM Inc. for $49 million.
The Trump administration has been using the deadly COVID-19 pandemic to expedite the deportation of refugees, immigrants and asylum seekers.
In late June, a US court ordered the release of more than 100 children held in detention in federal immigration detention centers.
Los Angeles district judge Dolly Gee said in her ruling that the children must be released from the facilities due to the risk of catching coronavirus at the centers.
US President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” immigration policy has resulted in thousands of children being separated from their parents across the southern border.
