Arkansas’ Republican governor says he’s opposed to the federal government using any facilities in the state to house migrant children who are separated from their parents.
The Latest on the separation of immigrant children from their parents following President Donald Trump’s order allowing them to remain with their parents (all times local):
5:45 p.m.
Arkansas’ Republican governor says he’s opposed to the federal government using any facilities in the state to house migrant children who are separated from their parents.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Thursday he understands that officials are looking at the Little Rock Air Force Base and unused federal land in south Arkansas to house immigrants and that the decision on using the facilities is being made in Washington and not at the state level.
Hutchinson says any costs for housing immigrant families would be paid by the federal government.
Hutchinson a day earlier rejected calls from Democratic leaders in the majority-Republican legislature to recall the state’s National Guard soldiers deployed to assist in border surveillance.
4:50 p.m.
Pope Francis says countries should take in as many migrants as they can handle and properly integrate into their societies.
Speaking to reporters aboard his airplane as he flew back to Rome on Thursday after a daylong trip to Geneva, Francis reiterated that he supports the U. S. bishops who condemned the immigration policy of separating children from parents who enter the United States illegally.
Francis also endorsed European proposals to develop jobs and education in African countries to combat trafficking of migrants seeking better lives in Europe.
The pope decried that migrants sent back to Libya suffer torture and other abuse in prisons he likened to World War II concentration camps.
He said: “Each country can accept the migrants that they can handle and integrate,” including by having enough jobs.
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4:10 p.m.
Two Pennsylvania facilities are housing immigrant children separated from their families at the border under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that about 50 children have been sent to the Holy Family Institute in Emsworth, about 8 miles (13 kilometers) north of Pittsburgh since April.
Facility CEO Sister Linda Yankoski confirmed the Institute is under contract with the Office of Refugee Resettlement, is housing the children and has housed unaccompanied minors since 2010.
WHYY radio reports at least nine children have been sent to another shelter in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley.
Elizabeth Yaeger, supervising attorney for HIAS Pennsylvania’s Immigrant Youth Advocacy Project said she could not disclose the exact location or name of the shelter.
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3:30 p.m.
An attorney representing immigrant children says a decades-old court settlement doesn’t require or even imply that the U. S. government should separate families entering the country illegally.
Peter Schey said Thursday that he will oppose a Trump administration request for a federal judge in Los Angeles to alter the longstanding agreement that ensures children are released from detention facilities.
Schey says the administration is seeking to deflect blame for its recent family separation policy after public outcry and called the government’s filing “deceptive and dishonest.”
The judge ruled during the Obama administration that children had to be released from family detention facilities after authorities began detaining mothers with children in response to a surge in Central American immigrants seeking asylum.
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3:15 p.m.
The prospect of the U. S. government housing up to 20,000 migrant children on military bases has raised questions on Capitol Hill.
Sen. Chuck Schumer said Thursday that he wants to know how many children are already being held after illegally crossing the U. S.-Mexico border and in what conditions.
A defense official says the Department Health and Human Services asked for the space and the Pentagon agreed. The official had knowledge of the request and spoke on condition of anonymity because the arrangement hasn’t yet been announced.
Schumer asked why reporters haven’t been allowed to tour detention facilities and how the new plan would work. The New York Democrat also wondered how the Trump administration was keeping track of families separated under its “zero tolerance” policy on illegal border crossings.
— Associated Press journalist Robert Burns in Washington
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3:15 p.m.
A Florida criminal defendant says he’s been working at a Miami-area facility housing dozens of children separated from their families at the U. S.-Mexico border.
The Miami Herald reported that Franky Santos told Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Jeri Cohen this week that his job was “like a day care,” overseeing children ages 12 to 17. He said he wasn’t supposed to discuss it publicly.
Santos faces felony drug possession charges from a 2017 traffic stop where an officer found 20 grams of marijuana. He said the contractor running the facility knew his criminal history.
Cohen said Santos’ hiring was “a disgrace” and urged him to quit. She said people with pending criminal cases shouldn’t be working there.
The contractor, Comprehensive Health Services Inc., referred questions to the Department Health and Human Services.
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2:45 p.m.
A defense official says the Pentagon has agreed to provide housing on military bases for up to 20,000 migrant children detained after illegally crossing the U. S.-Mexico border.
The official says the Department Health and Human Services asked for the space and the Pentagon agreed to support it. The official had knowledge of the request and spoke on condition of anonymity because the arrangement has not yet been announced.
It was first reported by The Washington Post.
It’s unclear which military bases would be used to house the children. HHS has assessed four military bases as prospective housing for child migrants.
Three are in Texas: Fort Bliss, Goodfellow Air Force Base and Dyess Air Force Base. The fourth is Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas. It’s not clear whether other bases are under consideration.
— Associated Press journalist Robert Burns in Washington
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2:45 p.m.
Washington and more than a half-dozen other states say they plan to sue the Trump administration over a policy that separated immigrant families illegally entering the United States.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson made the announcement Thursday outside a federal prison in the city of SeaTac, south of Seattle, where about 200 immigration detainees have been transferred — including women separated from their children.
Ferguson says the separations violate the due process rights of children and their parents and that Trump’s executive order Wednesday halting the practice hasn’t resolved the legal concerns.
Massachusetts, California, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Minnesota plan to join the lawsuit. New York has separately announced plans to sue.
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1:05 p.m.
First lady Melania Trump boarded a flight to a facility housing migrant children separated from their parents wearing a jacket that read “I really don’t care, do u?”
The green hooded spring military jacket has the words written graffiti-style on the back.
When asked what message the first lady’s jacket intended to send, spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said: “It’s a jacket. There was no hidden message.”
Mrs. Trump wore a different pale yellow jacket when the plane landed in McAllen, Texas, for a visit to the Upbring New Hope Children’s Center, which houses 55 migrant children.
The trendy jacket sharply contrasts with the first lady’s typically bold, foreign-flavored wardrobe.
In public appearances, the first lady has worn designs by Dolce & Gabbana, Del Pozo, Christian Dior, Emilio Pucci, Givenchy and Valentino, often with daringly high Christian Louboutin heels.
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1 p.m.
The Justice Department has agreed to release a child separated from his migrant mother after she sued in federal court.
Justice Department lawyer Sarah Fabian told U. S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman at a hearing Thursday that the child would be released in the afternoon.
The mother is Beata Mariana de Jesus Mejia-Mejia. She filed for political asylum after crossing the border with her 7-year old son Darwin following a trek from Guatemala.
Mother and son will be reunited in the Washington area before traveling to Texas, where they will live while her asylum claim is being decided.
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12:30 p.m.
The Justice Department has formally asked a federal judge to change the rules on detaining families caught at the border.
Lawyers on Thursday filed a memorandum to a class-settlement that governs how children are handled when they are caught crossing the U. S. border illegally.
The Flores settlement states that families cannot be detained longer than 20 days.
The move is aimed at stopping the separation of children from their families amid a new policy where anyone caught crossing the border is charged criminally.
