Judge Orders INS to Free 2 Children : Advocates Say Ruling Could Aid Hundreds of Illegals

In a decision that immigrants’ rights advocates said may help lead to the release of hundreds of illegal alien children held by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, a Los Angeles federal judge Friday ordered the agency to release two detained teen-agers to relatives or family friends.

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Kelleher told the INS to release Jenny Lisette Flores, 15, to an aunt and uncle, and place Dominga Hernandez, 16, in the custody of a family friend. The temporary guardians accepted legal responsibility to ensure the youngsters’ appearance at deportation hearings. Both teen-agers, natives of El Salvador, have been in INS custody since May.

The girls are plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit filed last week that seeks to force the agency to discontinue a policy of releasing detained illegal alien children only to their parents or legal guardians. The coalition of immigrants’ rights advocates that filed the complaint claims the policy constitutes using the children as bait to capture their parents.

Both sides in the lawsuit said they were pleased by Kelleher’s decision.

Nationwide Injunction

“Within the next four to five weeks, we intend to request that the judge issue a nationwide preliminary injunction, simply applying the principles he applied in releasing these children to all children detained by INS,” said Peter A. Schey, an attorney with the National Center for Immigrants’ Rights Inc. “We would be seeking an order which would require INS to approve similarly situated responsible adults.”

Schey said he expected the girls--who were being held at an INS detention center in Pasadena--to be released Friday evening.

INS Western Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell, at a Friday afternoon press conference, said the agency has always been willing to release children to adults who are legally responsible for them. He said the INS was pleased with Kelleher’s decision because it means that the adults to whom the children are being released will be held legally responsible for their care.

The ruling does not set a new precedent for the agency’s handling of such cases, Ezell said. And he vehemently disputed the claim that illegal alien children were being used to lure their parents into custody.

‘A Bogus Charge’

“The kids are not used as bait,” he said. “It’s a bogus charge. . . . It is not our policy to incarcerate a parent who walks in to claim legal custody of the child.”

Ezell also disputed figures used by the immigrants’ rights center claiming that about 2,000 children are being detained nationwide due to the INS policy of releasing them only to parents or legal guardians.

Only about 200 children are in the agency’s custody nationwide, Ezell said, and many of them are detained together with at least one parent. The average length of stay is 28 days, he said.

Alice Bussiere, attorney for the National Center for Youth Law, which also is helping to represent the plaintiffs, said the coalition plans to file discovery motions aimed at determining the exact number of children being held by the INS.