The Obama Administration massively expanded the use of family detention in the summer of 2014 in response to the significant increase of children and families fleeing violence and instability in the Northern Triangle of Central America. Over 68,000 family units entered the United States in fiscal year 2014, and the United States is now holding thousands of mothers and children in facilities throughout the country. Since June of last year, more than 4,800 mothers and children have been booked into detention centers, and many have been in custody for more than ten months. The average age of a child in detention is just 6 years old. First Focus is one of several organizations calling on the Administration to end the practice of detaining vulnerable children and families.

First Focus Resources

• Fact sheet: Family Detention: The Harmful Impact on Children
• Sign-on letter from First Focus and We Belong Together from children and women’s groups to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Johnson
• Sign-on letter to President Obama calling for an end to family detention

From our Voices for Kids Blog

• Detaining Children and Families is Still the Wrong Policy
• Detention: No Place for Children or Families

Other Resources

• Human Rights First report: U.S. Detention of Families Seeking Asylum: A One Year Update
• LIRS and Women’s Refugee Commission report: Locking Up Family Values, Again
• Coalition fact sheet: The Detention of Immigrant Families
• May 2015 letter from 136 Members from the House of Representatives
• June 2015 letter from 33 Senators
• ACLU resources on RILR V. Johnson
• LIRS, WRC, and KIND summary on applicability of Flores ruling to family detention

Take Action

1000s of mothers & children are locked up for seeking safety for their families in U.S. @POTUS @DHSgov Sec. Johnson, #EndFamilyDetention
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