Immigration

Immigrant Parents Denied Adequate Medical Care, Should Be Released With Their Children, Lawyers Say

A complaint filed with DHS comes a day before a key court hearing in a case that will decide whether ICE should release parents with their children from detention

In this June 19, 2018, file photo, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) special agent prepares to arrest alleged immigration violators at Fresh Mark, Salem. Image courtesy ICE ICE / U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
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Lawyers representing immigrant families in detention filed a complaint to the Department of Homeland Security on Sunday alleging that ICE has failed to provide adequate medical care to their clients, NBC News reports.

The filing comes one day ahead of a key court hearing in a case that will decide whether U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should release parents with their children from detention. In the letter to DHS's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, lawyers with clients inside the three family detention centers said leaving parents in the facilities would be denying them proper medical care in the midst of a pandemic.

They and lawyers representing the Trump administration will appear in federal district court in Washington, D.C., on Monday afternoon to argue about the fate of the detained migrant families. The government has argued in the case that parents do not need to be released from detention with their children in order to be spared from catching and spreading COVID-19.

Late last month, a federal district court in California ruled that children must be released from ICE family detention by July 17.

If Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia decides that parents do not need to be released from the centers, the Department of Homeland Security could decide to release children without their parents, triggering family separation.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

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