LAWSUIT AIMS TO STOP LICENSING OF TEXAS IMMIGRATION DETENTION FACILITIES, ALLEGED NEWS

IN MARCH 2016  LUMIERE CHARITY WROTE ABOUT THE EFFORTS BEING MADE BY TEXAS TO CLASSIFY IMMIGRANT DETENTION CENTERS AS CHILD-CARE FACILITIES. [1]
  In our March 30th 2016 blog post, Lumiere reflected that Judge Gee had ruled that the country's three detention centers release the children they were holding in 'deplorable conditions' that 'failed to meet even the minimum standard' for a safe and clean environment for children, Alleged News. [1]

Flight
Many of the children are fleeing from drugs and gangs. 
  In 2014, it was reported that Anthony O Castellanos disappeared from his gang-ridden neighbourhood in Honduras; his younger brother Kenneth got on his bicycle to search for him, Alleged news.
 They were found within days of each other, dead; Alleged News.
Anthony, 13, and a friend, had been shot in the head; Kenneth, 7, had been tortured and beaten with sticks and rocks, Alleged News.
  These young innocents were among seven children murdered in the La Pradera neighbourhood of San Pedro Sula in April 2014 alone.
 These killings are a great factor inspiring the migration of Central American children to the United States, which has sent an unprecedented number of unaccompanied minors across the Texas border; Alleged News. [1]

Lawsuit
A Lawsuit now aims to stop licensing of Texas immigration detention facilities; Alleged News.
  A Judge in Austin granted a temporary restraining order to stop the licensing, five days after the Texas department of family and protective services [DFPS] awarded a childcare licence to one of two federal family holding facilities near San Antonio, Alleged News.
  The second was set to receive its permit imminently, Alleged News.
Judge Karin Crump will hear the case - brought by two detained mothers and Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based group opposed to private prisons - on 13th May 2016. The plaintiffs are seeking a temporary injunction to prevent Texas from implementing a new rule that enables the state agency to license the centers, Alleged News. [2]

Detention and Psychiatric Disorders
Luis Zayas, a psychologist and social worker at the University of Texas, found in 2014 that detention caused serious psychiatric disorders and development regression including reversion to breastfeeding; Alleged News. 
  Zayas believes that as little as a couple of weeks in the facilities could have profound long-lasting effects on the mental health of both young and older children, Alleged News. 
  These children may well have already experienced traumatic conditions in their home countries and on the way to the US, are anxious about whether they will be deported and 'are witnessing their mothers be disempowered by the way they are treated'. according to Zayas, Alleged News. [2]


[1] Texas is trying to classify immigrant detention centers as child-care facilities, Alleged News
http://lumierecharity.blogspot.ie/2016/03/texas-is-trying-to-classify-immigrant.html

[2] Lawsuit aims to stop licensing of Texas immigration detention facilities, Alleged News
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/04/lawsuit-texas-immigration-detention-facilities-family-centres

With thanks to theguardian.com