We support Casa Libre’s efforts to secure the release of detained minors and provide social mobility services for immigrant youth. The target population is highly vulnerable and possesses few rights. Casa Libre is a place where formerly homeless and incarcerated undocumented minors can find safe haven and refuge, and finally be treated as human beings, rather than being made invisible, or locked up as if a threat to society or national security. Casa Libre is Ellis Island for the youth it serves and we fully support its important role in our community.
 

These were extraordinarily dangerous times for unaccompanied immigrant minors often detained for weeks at a time in unsafe and unsanitary U.S. border patrol facilities, and for months in secure Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) facilities. In 2018, five migrant children died while in U.S. custody. Illness is widespread due to the unsanitary and overcrowded conditions. Youth are forced to sleep on concrete floors in over-crowded cells and cages. All detained minors are Flores class members entitled to treatment consistent with the terms of the Flores settlement which sets the national standards for the detention and release of detained migrant children. which sets the national standards for the detention and release of detained migrant children. The LA-based Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law represents the class of all detained minors and is constantly engaged in federal court in Los Angeles challenging the current administration’s violations of the terms of the Flores settlement.
 

Many detained unaccompanied minors have sponsors in L.A. County and surrounding areas, and want to come here if and when released from custody. However, when transported to an ICE adult detention facility reach eighteen years of age, they are shackled, transported to an ICE adult detention facility, and may be promptly deported to countries where their lives are at risk.