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AUSTIN - The state's decision to grant a childcare license to a detention facility in Karnes City has prompted a legal battle between the state and a nonprofit grass-roots organization that won a temporary restraining order Wednesday, halting licensing until a court appearance next week.

The temporary restraining order was issued by state District Judge Karen Crump.

Last week, the Department of Family Planning Services issued a temporary child-care license to the Karnes County Residential Center, run by a private prison company. In response, the Austin-based Grassroots Leadership and two mothers detained in the facility with their children filed a lawsuit requesting a temporary injunction and temporary restraining order. Read more about Judge halts agency's effort to license detention center as a child-care facility

A state district judge in Travis County has issued a temporary retraining order against the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, preventing the agency from issuing a childcare license to one of two controversial family detention centers in South Texas.

Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based nonprofit that opposes private prison companies, and two detainee mothers on Tuesday asked Judge Karin Crump to invalidate new regulations that went into effect in February and allow the state to issue childcare licenses to the facilities. The state family services department, the plaintiffs say, never had the authority to rewrite the rules and give itself the power to regulate the centers.

Crump on Wednesday agreed to issue the restraining order until May 13, when the court will take up the plaintiffs’ request on the new regulations.

“This is a very good sign that the judge has recognized that we must, at least temporarily, halt the appalling practice of calling family prisons childcare centers,” said Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership. Read more about Judge issues restraining order in family detention center case

A judge has blocked a temporary residential child-care license for one of the nation's largest detention centers for families caught crossing the southern U.S. border illegally.

The licenses are needed because a federal judge ruled last year the centers would have to eventually release the immigrant children without them.

State District Judge Karin Crump signed a temporary restraining order Wednesday that blocks issuance of a license to the privately owned and managed, 2,400-bed South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.

The order was sought by an activist group that opposes for-profit prisons. It is effective until May 13, when arguments are scheduled on a temporary injunction to halt the licensing indefinitely. Read more about Judge Blocks Child-Care License for Family Detention Center

An Austin judge temporarily blocked the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services from issuing a childcare license to an immigration detention center in Dilley on Wednesday.

Grassroots Leadership, a nonprofit organization opposed to for-profit prisons, sued the department on Tuesday challenging its authority to issue childcare licenses to privately run immigration detention centers in Dilley and Karnes City. The Karnes City facility has already received a temporary license. 

“Today, we are glad a judge has agreed to halt, at least temporarily, the appalling practice of labeling family prisons as childcare facilities,” said Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership in a statement. “Family detention camps are prisons. They are not childcare facilities. DFPS has for a decade refused to regulate these facilities because they do not have authority to do so." Read more about Judge Blocks State From Licensing Family Detention Center

Texas has awarded a for-profit prison company a child care license, a move that could help the detention center get around a federal court order and detain undocumented immigrant women and their children.

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On Tuesday, two mothers detained in Texas and Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based organization, asked a state court to issue a temporary injunction and temporary restraining order against an emergency rule that allowed the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services to license private groups operating family detention centers.

The filings are the latest part of a legal battle between immigrant advocacy groups and Texas Department of Family and Protective Services. Read more about Texas Immigrant Detention Center Gets Child Care License

In a controversial move, Texas has awarded the Karnes County Residential Center a temporary child-care license, which lets the facility to get around a federal court order that would otherwise prevent it from detaining undocumented women and their children.

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However, while ICE lauded the decision, immigrants rights advocates who have long been critical of conditions inside the facilities were quite angered. In fact, one non-profit organization, Grassroots Leadership, has opted to sue the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services over it.

"We think both that it is inappropriate and wrong for the state agency to license prisons as childcare facilities," said Bob Libal, executive director of the organization. "They're saying these are child facilities now, after more than a decade of saying that there weren't child care facilities in the detention centers, essentially to help the federal government avoid a lawsuit and to help the federal government enforce harsh immigration policies against children and their moms." Read more about Texas Receives Lawsuit After Granting Child Care License To Immigrant Detention Facility

Immigration activists are fighting back against a Texas decision to license immigration detention centres that critics call “baby jails”.

A lawsuit was launched on Tuesday in an attempt to stop the licensing, four days after the Texas department of family and protective services (DFPS) granted a childcare licence to one of two federal family holding facilities near San Antonio, with the second set to receive its permit imminently.

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Yet the DFPS pressed on and now faces a lawsuit from Grassroots Leadership, an Austin-based group opposed to private prisons, and two detained mothers. It argues that the DFPS is overstepping its authority by regulating places that are not, in reality, childcare establishments. Patrick Crimmins, a DFPS spokesman, said the agency is reviewing the suit and consulting with the state’s attorney general’s office.

“By all reasonable measures, family detention camps are prisons. They are not childcare facilities,” Bob Libal, executive director of Grassroots Leadership, said in a statement. It is not the first time the group has taken legal action on the issue: It won a temporary injunction last November to stop the state from using an emergency rule to fast-track the licensing process without public comment. Read more about Lawsuit aims to stop licensing of Texas immigration detention facilities

El Departamento de Familia y Servicios de Protección de Texas decidió licenciar por seis meses al centro de Karnes como guardería, al cabo del plazo, habrá inspecciones y el centro podrá obtener la licencia permanente.

Pero la organización pro-inmigrante Grassroots Leadership entabló acción legal el martes, pidiéndole a una corte del Condado Travis una restricción temporal de esta práctica.

"Los centros de detención familiares son prisiones", dijo Bob Libal, Director Ejecutivo de Grassroots Leadership. Read more about Estado da licencias de guardería a centro de detención, activistas entablan demanda

HOUSTON –  One of the nation's largest detention centers for families caught crossing the southern U.S. border has received a temporary residential child-care license, amid discussions over whether the federal government will keep using such facilities.

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Immigrant advocates criticized the decision to grant the temporary license, citing reports of inadequate medical care and other issues as reasons why such facilities shouldn't get licenses. One group, Grassroots Leadership, said Tuesday that it and two mothers detained at Texas facilities with their children had sued in Austin to stop the licensing. Read more about Texas immigrant family detention center granted child-care license

A nonprofit organization has sued the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services for issuing a temporary child-care license to an immigration detention facility in Karnes City.

Grassroots Leadership, which opposes for-profit prisons, says the department has no authority to regulate detention centers or prisons and is asking Travis County District Court for a temporary injunction and restraining order to stop the licensing. 

"We think both that it is inappropriate and wrong for the state agency to license prisons as childcare facilities," said Bob Libal, executive director of the organization. "They're saying these are child facilities now, after more than a decade of saying that there weren't child care facilities in the detention centers, essentially to help the federal government avoid a lawsuit and to help the federal government enforce harsh immigration policies against children and their moms." Read more about State Sued for Licensing Detention Center