Trump Administration Detaining More Immigrant Children in Hotels

Their temperatures were checked throughout the day at the hotel, where many people appeared to be Haitian, they said.

But they weren’t allowed to leave their rooms. The telephones were removed, and to call relatives, they had to ask the contractors supervising them.

Paul said a contractor stayed in his room at all hours, insisting that the family keep the bathroom door open anytime they went inside.

Paul and his wife tested positive at the hotel for Covid-19, while Verty and his wife tested negative.

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Verty says contractors repeatedly told them they were taking a flight to Florida to live with relatives and encouraged them to eat ice in case their temperatures were checked.

“I understood it was a deportation when I saw people arriving in handcuffs,” he said.

After the AP reported in July that three Hampton Inns had been used to detain children, advocacy groups and Democratic lawmakers criticized the administration, with US Sen. Bob Casey of Pennsylvania tweeting, “This is child abuse.”

The American Civil Liberties Union also sued on behalf of people detained at the McAllen hotel.

The US government agreed not to expel 17 parents and children who were at the hotel on July 23, and Paul’s family was eventually released in the US.

“We have now filed a class action to stop the policy wholesale, because the government’s policy of holding the children in secret in hotels and quickly expelling them made it impossible to find and represent each child individually,” ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said.

Both Paul and Verty had fled Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, in 2016 and settled in Chile. They decided in November 2019 to try to enter the US.

It took the families six months to traverse South and Central America, crossing often-deadly jungles and migration routes, before they arrived in July.

Advocates for Haitian immigrants say they face special mistreatment, with higher bonds and less likelihood of winning asylum.

“Racism, discrimination, and anti-Blackness are rooted in every system, including the immigration system,” said Guerline Jozef, executive director of the Haitian Bridge Alliance.