Obama Urged to Free Asylum-Seekers Before Trump Takes Office
- About 4,000 women and children are in jail-like facilities
- President-elect has promised to deport millions from U.S.
President Barack Obama speaks on Nov. 19, 2016, in Lima.
Immigration advocates are asking the Obama administration to release thousands of detained Central American women and children who want asylum in the U.S., citing concerns that Donald Trump will deport them after his inauguration in January.
Representatives of groups including the Women’s Refugee Commission and the American Immigration Lawyers Association met with White House officials last week to discuss a host of immigration issues, including the fate of about 4,000 Central American detainees, some as young as two years old, who have fled violence in their home countries. They’re housed in jail-like facilities in Texas and Pennsylvania, some for more than a year, as they wait for the government to process their asylum pleas.