US govt says it has right to detain children of parents who illegally cross its border

A week after signing an executive order ending child separation, the US government has revealed that it has the right to detain children and parents caught crossing the U.S. border illegally for the duration of their immigration proceedings.

According to lawyers of the US Justice Department, in the filing in U.S. District Court in California on Friday, they now have no choice but to hold children for as long as it takes to resolve their immigration cases, because of a preliminary injunction issued on Tuesday in a separate immigration case.

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Reports say the case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union in San Diego, challenged the recent government policy of separating families in order to detain parents for as long as necessary under President Donald Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy.

However, Trump reversed the order last week and reports say that the new order which would keep families together after they get detained crossing the border illegally was drafted by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in an effort to end what has become a major crisis for the Trump’s administration.

 

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