| for Texas Observer
In an article published in the Texas Observer, Nithya Nathan-Pineau, Director of CAIR Coalition's Detained Children's Program, addresses the new trend of ICE detaining 18-year-old immigrants who were detained at youth shelters and placing them into adult detention centers.
“We’ve been changing the way we’re talking to kids to basically prepare them for the eventuality of ICE detention [if they can’t reunify with family],” said Nithya Nathan-Pineau of the Capital Area Immigrants’ Rights Coalition, a Washington, D.C., organization that works at shelters in Virginia and Maryland. Asked about Ana’s case, Nathan-Pineau said: “A year ago, I would say that’s extreme, but now, my expectations of ICE are lower.”
“There’s no switch that gets flipped [at 18] that makes you really mature and able to navigate difficult bureaucracy,” said Nathan-Pineau. “It feels like detention is never-ending; it’s hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel.”
