An update on the families in the Berks County detention facility; unaccompanied child migrants

Listen 00:48:46

Guests: Carol Anne Donohoe, Lee Gerlent

Twenty-two asylum-seeking mothers at the Berks County Residential Center are on a hunger strike.  They are protesting the long lengths of their detention at the Pennsylvania facility, which houses migrant mothers and their children as they await deportation or asylum.  This hour, Mary talks about the Berks center, the families being held there, and a recent court decision that ruled against the women’s right to asylum.  Her guests are immigration attorney CAROL ANNE DONOHOE, who represents a number of families at held at the center, and LEE GELERNT, Deputy Director of the ACLU’s National Immigrant’s Rights Project. Then, we turn to the issue of unaccompanied child migrants.  In 2014, we saw heart-wrenching images of the some of the 54,000 children who made the difficult journey from Central American to the United States.  Many are still trying to come here.  JENNIFER PODKUL, Director of Policy at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), explains why they are still coming and what happens to them along the way and after they arrive.

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