A court-appointed monitor for immigrant youth is calling on the U.S. government to stop detaining children as young as 1 in hotels before expelling them to their home countries.
Andrea Ordin says the practice could lead to emotional and physical harm. Ordin also says in a report filed late Wednesday that there appeared to be a “lack of formal oversight” over the contractors hired by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain children at Hampton Inn & Suites hotels in Phoenix and the Texas border cities of McAllen and El Paso. ICE says it uses a contractor “to transport single minors to hotels and to ensure each minor remains safe and secure while in this temporary housing.”