WASHINGTON, DC – On Friday evening, lawyers for the Department of Justice filed a notice of compliance that it will be the policy of the United States to keep children incarcerated with their parents for indefinite periods of time. FWD.us President Todd Schulte issued the following statement today on indefinite family detention:

“This Administration is wrongly stating that the only alternative to taking children from parents is jailing kids with their families for months or years because of the years-long backlog in immigration court. The Department of Justice was explicit in their filing Friday evening, saying: ‘The government will not separate families but detain families together during the pendency of immigration proceedings when they are apprehended at or between ports of entry.’

“Manufacturing a crisis to create this false choice has been the administration’s plan all along – but this is the government being explicit in its intentions to advocate for the indefinite incarceration of kids with their parents for months and years in response to lawful requests for asylum, or for misdemeanor illegal entry cases. Like taking 4,100 children away from their parents, this is wrong. The administration must reverse its zero tolerance policy immediately and direct all resources necessary into reuniting the 4,100 children it took with their parents.”