The Real-Life Consequences Of Biden Restarting Family Detention

Carmen couldn’t sleep through the night for two years.

She hoped she would get rest after spending long days at the Berks County immigration detention center in Lessport, Pennsylvania. But rest never came for the 39-year-old mom from Honduras. Every 15 minutes, the guards would point their flashlights directly in their faces, confirming that the families were still there even though they had nowhere else to go.

The light would wake up everyone, including her toddler son. The cycle was agonizing, and it went on for nearly two years.

Carmen, who is being referred to by a pseudonym because she is an asylee and her family case remains pending, is one of the thousands of migrants who has been held in family detention.

The policy began under the Obama administration in 2014, in response to an increase in Central American families seeking asylum at the border. The practice only expanded under former President Donald Trump, who cracked down on immigration with a series of harsh policies. Women and children were held in prison-like facilities for an indefinite period of time in an attempt to deter families from seeking asylum at the southern border of the U.S.