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. Statistics show that over 68,000 family units entered the United States in fiscal year 2014, a reflection of the increase in asylum seekers throughout the region as documented by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. As of July 2015, the United States is now holding thousands of mothers and children in family detention facilities.
This fact sheet outlines the reasons why family detention is the wrong policy for children.