HOLLAND, Mich. — Sarah Yore-Vanoosterhout feels like someone tricked her.
She says "betrayal" is the only word to describe her emotions after she read a New York Times article earlier this month.
The article claimed President Biden's administration may resume a policy that detains families who cross the border illegally in order to manage the anticipated influx of migrants as soon a public health measure, known as Title 42, ends in May.
“Looking back, ending family detention was one of the best things the Biden administration has done and now he's looking to come back on that," said Yore-Vanoosterhout. "I don't even think frustration is the right word for what many of us — Betrayal. Honestly.”
Yore-Vanoosterhout founded Lighthouse Immigrant Advocates (LIA), a Holland-based nonprofit organization that provides free and low-cost legal services to migrants, in 2015. More than 4,000 people have been helped through their work.
On Wednesday, LIA joined 383 advocacy groups from across the country and sent a letter to Biden urging him not to reinstate the practice.
"The long dark history of detaining families in Immigration and Custody Enforcement (ICE) facilities provides all the evidence necessary to show the U.S. government should never return to this inhumane practice," the organizations wrote. "Directly impacted families, advocates, attorneys, whistleblowers, and medical and other experts have condemned this practice for years, and fought to close down the facilities used to detain families.
The letter lists the health issues, abusive conditions and limited counsel options linked to family detention facilities.
Yore-Vanoosterhout also questioned whether ICE officials could handle the logistics of relaunching the practice.
Court orders require the U.S. to screen families within 20 days of detainment, but she says internal data shows the average length of detainment is 37 days.
Facilities must also provide playgrounds and educational programming, which is not currently in place according to Yore-Vanoosterhout.
"We don't see any good way for them to resume this practice," she explains. "In fact, what they're doing already is one of the alternatives that they're exploring, which is the tethering, the cellphone tracking system, so people are then released on their own recognizance, but they're able to track them through these ICE tracking systems."
Family detention originated during former President George Bush's administration and continued under President Obama and President Trump.
Yore-Vanoosterhout fears a reinstatement of the practice would instead force parents to send their children to the border alone.
In February, a NYT investigation exposed the exploitation of migrant children working in Grand Rapids.
READ: Grand Rapids business accused of violating child labor laws
She notes west Michigan houses two resettlement agencies with large child resettlement programs, Bethany Christian Services and Samiratas, whose resources would likely be stretched thin if there's an influx of kids.
Limited legal resources would cause problems locally too.
“It’s going to place a burden on families who are certified as foster care providers," said Yore-Vanoosterhout. "It's going to create a burden, I think, on our public welfare system as well. Those are things that we need to think about - What's that going to look like for? For those families? What's that going to look like for west Michigan in general?"
Yore-Vanoosterhout believes the administration should continue its current policy, which entails the release of families on their own recognizance and the use of cell phones to track them.
She thinks if officials want to do something, they should offer work authorization so migrants can fill the labor gap while the government processes their claim.
“They [migrants] are so invested in seeing this process through," said Yore-Vanoosterhout. "I think we need to trust that and have faith in that rather than then keeping them locked up. In reality, they're coming here because of economic demise of their country and persecution and so just to put them in another situation that persecution is not the right answer. It's not it's not the human rights answer to the situation.”
To read the full letter, click here.
