LEESPORT, Pa. (WLVT) - Recently a federal judge ordered the three detention centers in the U.S. holding migrant families to release all children by July 27 because of the COVID-19 pandemic and its health risks.
One of the centers is the Berks Family Residential Center near Leesport, Berks County. Inside there are five families, totaling 16 people.
Erika Sutherland, an associate professor at Muhlenberg College and chairwoman of the Departments of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, has been inside the center to interpret for the detainees.
Sutherland tells PBS39 the parents inside were faced with a very difficult decision.
“There's been quite a bit of pressure placed on the parents of those children basically giving them a pretty awful choice," she said. "Either you sign an agreement saying the child can be released to a sponsor who may or may not be a family member, who may or may not be someone who knows anything about the family, or you can relinquish rights to having the child freed and you stay with the child, the two of you in detention.”
U.S. Rep. Madeleine Dean, D-Montgomery County, has also been inside. She said detainees have been tested only once, and they are being quarantined as they come in.
“Folks who are detained and brought in are immediately put into a 14-day quarantine, which as the attorney says is more of a 14-day isolation," Dean said. "They’re held in solitary.”