Immigration officials say they are taking detailed precautions, activists call on Gov. Tom Wolf and President-elect Joe Biden to take action.
After being ordered to release all children in their custody due to the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials argued against releasing their parents with them in new court filings.
A lawsuit has been filed in federal court on behalf of 56 immigrant families held in detention centers in Pennsylvania and Texas, alleging they are “recklessly exposing” children and their parents to the coronavirus.
The Berks Family Residential Center has been a site of protest for years. Las Madres Berks, as the group of about two dozen former residents call themselves, were ardent critics from inside the immigrant family detention center until some of them won their release in 2017, after nearly two years in federal custody.
The seven-member family, which includes two young children and a three-month-old infant, grabbed headlines when two members of the family alleged that their border crossing was accidental, and that they worried their baby would fall sick while in federal custody.
