According to a document by the National Immigrant Justice Center in Chicago (NIJC), between 2008 and 2012, the U.S. Government detained 1,366 undocumented children in immigration detention centers for adults and in most cases for more than a week.

According to a statement, the detentions were made in jails and prisons that were contracted by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to accommodate adults as they await deportation proceedings.

The center's executive director, Mary Meg McCarthy, said it is a "startling revelation" because these children "were isolated from the advice of lawyers and were denied legal protection".

"Congress should intervene to hold the DHS responsible for an immigration detention system that has grown too large and is out of control," added McCarthy.

In 2010 the NIJC requested information about the children being held by Immigration in these detention centers. And after litigation in federal court in Chicago on DHS, they released these statistics for 30 of the 200 adult detention centers that are contracted by DHS.

These numbers revealed concluded that undocumented children spent a total of 36,598 days in adult facilities, according to the NIJC statement.

A 1985 legal agreement known as Flores vs. Reno, requires that "children are not to be detained for more than 24 hours with adults who are not related to them", and establishes guidelines for the detention, release and treatment of children in immigration custody. NIJC notes that with the information obtained, it indicates that DHS violated the terms of that agreement and its own policies and regulations.

Every year DHS detains thousands of undocumented children who are ultimately deported. Among these include minors who seek asylum, and who entered illegally into the United States to reunite with family members. There are also children who entered into the country legally, but overstayed the time allowed by their visas.

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Editorial@Sandiegored.com

Omar.Martinez@Sandiegored.com