Migrant children held in San Diego temporary detention for weeks

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[upbeat music] Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman. On this episode of KPBS Midday Edition, the story of migrant children held in San Diego short-term immigration detention for weeks. This is KPBS Midday Edition, connecting our communities through conversation. [upbeat music] Under federal guidelines, migrants should not be detained in temporary border facilities for more than three days. But here in San Diego, some families with children have been detained at these stations for weeks at a time. That's caught the attention and concern of a federal judge. Joining me to talk about it is Sofia Mejias Pascoe. She's investigative border and immigration reporter for inewsource. Sofia, welcome.

Thanks for having me.

Glad to have you here. So this story has to do with temporary holding facilities at border stations, and these are, are different than immigration detention centers. So help us understand what we're talking about here specifically.

Yeah, that's right. So these are holding cells inside ports of entry like the Otay Mesa or San Ysidro Port of Entry, for example, or border stations, uh, border patrol stations within the US, and they're used to hold people who are encountered by immigration authorities, um, either within the US or at the border. It could be migrants who don't have documents to be in the US and could be subject to deportation, or it could be other people, including US citizens, um, detained at ports of entry, for example, for on suspicion of, of smuggling drugs or something like that. They could also be detained at these holding facilities. But like you said, what's important to understand here is that these are s- facilities that are separate and distinct from the ICE detention centers, um, which much more often detain immigrants for weeks or for months. These holding facilities, the government's own standards say that they should not hold people longer than s- than 72 hours.

So it sounds like there's a difference in maybe who is detained at these facilities. Beyond that, though, is there mu- is there much of a distinction?

Yeah, I mean, these are between, you know, the ICE detention centers and these facilities, they're only meant to be held, um, hold individuals for three days. So they're not sort of designed for the longer term, um, detention like ICE detention facilities are. And CBP is required to make, uh, or the government is required to make every effort possible to move people quickly out of these holding facilities, um, as the government is working to transfer or deport or, um, release people from their custody.

So how do children, uh, end up in these temporary holding facilities?

Yeah, so, um, many of the children and families that, that this reporting is centered on are families with children who have crossed the border recently and then been detained by border patrol. So they cross the border. At some point, they encounter immigration authorities, and then they're taken to these