As secure detention facilities, there is no legal mechanism to issue licenses to STFRC and KCRC given that children detained in these facilities are nonoffenders who are not nor have ever been subject to the jurisdiction of the Texas Juvenile court. Specifically, children held in STFRC and KCRC are detained there by ICE solely for the enforcement of federal immigration laws, or in other words deportation out of the United States.
DFPS’ proposed rule would be licensing (and therefore aiding) the commission a crime against thousands of children under Texas Family Code 54.011(f), which states that any person commits a class B misdemeanor offense if he or she knowingly detains or assists in detaining a nonoffender, “including a person who has been taken into custody and is being held solely for deportation out of the United States”, in a secure detention facility.
