The Obama administration wants the federal judge, who ruled that the United States can't detain illegal immigrant children with their mothers, to take a second look at her ruling.
The Justice Department submitted a 60-page response on Thursday with U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee of the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, arguing that the Homeland Security Department's use of family detention facilities is a deterrent for those wanting to come into the country illegally,
Politico is reporting.
The ruling by Judge Gee means that families aren't supposed to be held by the federal government for more than five days, which the Justice Department says isn't enough time to begin deportation proceedings.
"The proposed order would greatly impact DHS’s operational capacity and its ability to secure the borders while facilitating lawful trade and travel,"
the Justice Department lawyers said in the response.
The federal agency also said that the ruling by the California federal judge "could cause another notable increase in the numbers of parents choosing to cross the border with their children."
Judge Gee said in her July ruling that the practice of detaining the illegal immigrant children with their mothers is a violation of a 1997 settlement, which prohibits immigrant children from being detained in unlicensed secure facilities. She concluded that this
even applied to children who were being held with a parent.
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