Detention of Refugees Illegal Under Penn. Law - Letter to Attorney General

"A group of immigration attorneys and advocates representing mothers and children being held at a family immigration detention center in Pennsylvania have requested the state attorney general close the facility.  The Berks County Residential Center is unlawfully imprisoning children under Pennsylvania law, according to Attorney Matthew Archambeault, who wrote the joint letter to Attorney General Kathleen Kane.  He argues Pennsylvania law is clear in that only children who have been declared delinquent or are awaiting delinquency adjudication may be detained.  “None of the children detained within are delinquent or alleged delinquent,” Archambeault writes in the letter signed by five lawyers and advocates.  “They are all refugees seeking asylum here in the United States.”  The lawyers are asking Kane close the facility and consider civil and criminal penalties against those responsible for, they allege, illegally holding children under Pennsylvania law." - Franco Ordoñez, McClatchy Washington Bureau, March 23, 2015.