16 Apr
2025
8.3° c YEREVAN
2.5° c STEPANAKERT
ABCMEDIA
14 immigrant families, including 1 from Armenia, are being held in a detention facility in Texas’s Karnes County

14 immigrant families, including 1 from Armenia, are being held in a detention facility in Texas’s Karnes County

The Trump administration resumed family detention of immigrants last week in a South Texas facility after a Biden-era pause, a legal nonprofit group providing services to migrant families told the Associated Press. Fourteen immigrant families with children as young as one year old were in the detention facility in Karnes County, Texas, about 50 miles (80.5 kilometers) southeast of San Antonio.

The families are originally from Colombia, Romania, Iran, Angola, Russia, Armenia, Turkey and Brazil. Faisal Al-Juburi, the organization’s chief external affairs officer, said the families had been detained in the U.S. near the Mexican and Canadian borders. Some were in the U.S. for as little as 20 days and others for as long as about 10 years, Al-Juburi said. Trump severely curbed asylum and forcibly separated children from their parents at the border in a policy widely denounced as inhumane. The practice of family detention was largely halted, but not abolished, during the Biden administration. Immigration advocates expressed concern for the welfare of children held in detention.

“We also heard about suicidal ideation and suicidal attempts from children in the facility themselves and other significant mental health concerns, including self-harm and eating disorders that were not present prior to detention,” the advocates said.

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