Immigration

This case involves the Government's alleged practice of separating migrant parents and children held in immigration detention without a showing that the parent is unfit or presents a danger to the minor child. According to Plaintiffs, prior administrations detained migrant families, but did not have a practice of forcibly separating fit parents from their young children. Plaintiffs allege there are reports the Government may soon adopt a formal national policy of separating migrant families, and placing the children in government facilities for "unaccompanied minors" to deter others from coming to the United States. The Government denies it has a family separation policy and concedes such a policy would be "antithetical to the child welfare values" imposed on government actors responsible for the care and custody of migrant children who are separated from their parents as a result of the Government's enforcement of criminal and immigration law. Instead, the Government asserts it considers each case on the facts available at the time a placement decision *1154 is made, and that when separation occurs, it is the result of the Government taking lawful immigration enforcement and…