U.S. Plans to Step Up Detention and Deportation of Migrants
By JULIA PRESTONJUNE 20, 2014
Border Patrol agents processed a group of migrants from Honduras and Guatemala, mostly women and children, near McAllen, Tex., on Wednesday. McALLEN, Tex. — The Obama administration, stepping up efforts to reduce the influx of Central American migrants crossing the Southwest border illegally and saying that misinformation about its border policies may have helped spur it, will detain more of those migrants and accelerate their cases in immigration courts so they can be deported more quickly, officials said.
To accommodate the change, Department of Homeland Security officials are rushing to open more detention centers intended for families with children, the officials said. And they will expand the use of monitoring devices, such as electronic ankle bracelets, to keep track of migrants after they are released.
Immigration officers and judges will also be reassigned on an emergency basis to speed cases in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where most of the illegal migrants are entering into the United States.
The move comes as the administration is trying to quell rampant rumors throughout Central America that American border authorities are offering entry permits to parents traveling with young children after they are caught. Officials hope that by increasing the numbers of migrants who are detained and then deported, others considering the trek may be dissuaded from doing so.
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