Category World News

Hundreds of immigrant children in the United States have lingered in federal detention beyond a court-mandated limit, including some who were held more than five months, according to court filings.

The filings have alarmed legal advocates who say the government is failing to safeguard children.

The reports were submitted late on Monday in an ongoing civil lawsuit launched in 1985 that led to the creation of court-ordered supervision of standards in 1997. It eventually established a 20-day limit for children in custody.

The Trump administration is attempting to end the agreement.

Lawyers for detainees highlighted the US government’s own admissions that immigrant children were held for longer custody times, sometimes in hotels used for detention purposes.

They also argued that the children were subjected to contaminated food, a lack of access to medical care and insufficient legal counsel, citing reports from families and monitors at federal facilities.

A December 1 report from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicated that about 400 immigrant children were held in custody for more than the 20-day limit from August to September.

Legal advocates for the children told the court the problem was widespread and not specific to a region or facility.

The primary factors that prolonged their release were categorised into three groups: transportation delays, medical needs and legal processing.

The advocates contended that those reasons do not prove lawful justifications for the delays in their release. Through interviews with detained families, advocates identified five children held for 168 days. The report did not say how old those children were.

ICE did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Hotel use for temporary detention is allowed by the federal court for up to 72 hours, but lawyers questioned the government’s data, which they believe did not fully explain why children were held longer than three days in hotel rooms.

Conditions at the detention facilities continued to be an ongoing concern since the family detention site in Dilley, Texas, reopened this year.

Advocates documented injuries suffered by children and a lack of access to sufficient medical care. One child bleeding from an eye injury was not seen by medical staff for two days.

Another child’s foot was broken when a staff member dropped a volleyball net pole, according to the court filing.

“Medical staff told one family whose child got food poisoning to only return if the child vomited eight times,” the advocates wrote in their response.

“Children get diarrhea, heartburn, stomach aches, and they give them food that literally has worms in it,” one person with a family staying at the facility in Dilley wrote in a declaration submitted to the court.

Another wrote that they were given “broccoli and cauliflower that were moldy and had worms”.

Far-right Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has reaffirmed his commitment to running in Brazil’s 2026 presidential race, despite criticism that he appeared to be openly haggling over whether to remain a candidate.

On Tuesday, Bolsonaro met with reporters outside federal police headquarters in the capital Brasilia, where his father, former President Jair Bolsonaro, is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting to foment a coup.

The younger Bolsonaro said he conveyed to his father that he would not shrink from the 2026 race.

“I told him this candidacy is irreversible,” Flavio said. “And in his own words, ‘We will not turn back.’ Now it is time to talk to people, so we can have the right people on our side.”

The senator also attempted to clear up the comments that sparked the initial controversy.

On Sunday, Flavio raised eyebrows when he told Brazilian media that he could exit the race — for the right “price”.

“There’s a possibility I won’t go all the way,” Flavio said at the time. “I have a price for that. I will negotiate.”

He declined to name what that price would be, but his comments were widely interpreted to be a reference to his father’s imprisonment.

In September, a panel on Brazil’s Supreme Court convicted Jair of five charges related to his attempts to overturn the 2022 presidential election, including one count of seeking the violent abolition of the democratic rule of law.

Jair lost the 2022 race to current Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a left-wing leader who has announced he will run for a fourth term in 2026.

In November, the Supreme Court panel ordered Jair to be taken into custody to begin his sentence, after the ex-president admitted to damaging his ankle monitor.

Separately, in 2023, Brazil’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal ruled that Jair should be barred from holding public office for eight years, as a penalty for misusing the presidential office to spread election falsehoods.

Since his detention, Jair has backed his eldest son’s candidacy in the 2026 race. Liberal Party (PL) president Valdemar Costa Neto also confirmed on Friday that Jair’s endorsement meant that Flavio would indeed lead the party’s ticket.

Flavio has since received other right-wing endorsements, including from Sao Paulo Governor Tarcisio de Freitas, who was previously considered a frontrunner to represent the PL.

But Flavio’s comments on Sunday have thrown his nascent candidacy into doubt.

Critics, including from Lula’s Workers Party, have seized upon Flavio’s suggestion of a “price” to question his ethics and commitment.

“No one launches a candidacy one day, and the next day says, ‘Look, I can negotiate,’” Edinho Silva, the president of the Workers Party, told reporters. “It’s not just me. No one would take it seriously.”

But Flavio on Tuesday dismissed the attacks and reaffirmed he would stay in the race, while fighting for his father’s freedom.

Democrats are favoured to win Miami’s mayoral race for the first time in nearly 30 years, with the run-off closely watched as a test of voter sentiment in United States President Donald Trump’s Florida stronghold.

Although the election on Tuesday is technically nonpartisan – by law, candidates’ party affiliations do not appear on the ballot – it has drawn national attention.

Trump has endorsed former Miami City Manager Emilio Gonzalez, a Republican, while the Democratic National Committee is backing Eileen Higgins, 61, a former Miami-Dade County commissioner.

Higgins led a crowded field in last month’s first round, securing 36 percent of the vote, short of the majority needed to win outright, but well ahead of Gonzalez, a retired US Army colonel, who finished second with 20 percent. Another Democrat, former city commissioner Ken Russell, placed third with 18 percent .

If elected, Higgins would become the first Democrat to lead the city of 487,000 in nearly three decades, as well as the first woman and the first non-Hispanic mayor of Hispanic-majority Miami.

Democrats gain momentum before midterm elections

The race has attracted heavyweight support from both parties.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and Senator Rick Scott have campaigned for Gonzalez, while prominent Democrats, including US Senator Ruben Gallego and former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, have appeared on the trail for Higgins, who served on the county commission before advancing to the run-off.

A Democratic victory would add to the party’s momentum heading into the next midterm elections, following gains in November and a closer-than-expected loss last week in a special election for a Tennessee congressional district that Trump won by double digits.

The Miami contest is unfolding in an area that has shifted increasingly towards Republicans and where Trump has said he plans to build his presidential library.

Higgins, who has embraced the nickname “La Gringa”, says she speaks Spanish, and has represented the Cuban-American enclave of Little Havana, a conservative-leaning district.

Her campaign has focused on local issues, such as housing affordability, while also addressing national concerns, including immigration enforcement in a city with large Hispanic and foreign-born populations.

Gonzalez, meanwhile, has campaigned on repealing Miami’s homestead property tax and streamlining business permits.

A former director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services under President George W Bush, he has said he supports immigration arrests of those who commit crimes, describing broader enforcement questions as a “federal issue” during a recent debate.

A group of more than 200 former employees at the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) have signed an open letter decrying the “destruction” of the agency’s civil rights division under President Donald Trump.

The letter, published online on Tuesday, states that the Trump administration has turned the division’s primary mission of defending civil rights “upside down”, leading to an exodus of employees.

“Every election brought changes, but the fundamental mission of our work remained the same. That’s why most of us planned to stay at the Division following the 2024 election,” the letter reads.

“But after witnessing this Administration destroy much of our work, we made the heartbreaking decision to leave — along with hundreds of colleagues, including about 75 percent of attorneys. Now, we must sound the alarm about the near destruction of DOJ’s once-revered crown jewel.”

The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division was first created in 1957, in part to combat codified segregation and discrimination against Black people in the southern part of the US, during what was known as the Jim Crow era.

The division has also investigated and penalised patterns of discrimination in areas such as housing, policing and voting rights.

But Trump and his allies have often depicted efforts to address racial inequality as a form of discrimination targeting white people.

Tuesday’s letter from the former Justice Department employees says that the Civil Rights Division’s focus has shifted to issues aligned with Trump’s own priorities.

“Rather than rigorously evaluating the evidence to pursue only the most egregious cases, they demanded that we find facts to fit the Administration’s predetermined outcomes,” the letter said.

The letter cites Attorney General Pam Bondi’s decision to drop a lawsuit initiated under former President Joe Biden to challenge restrictions on voting access in the state of Georgia. It also points to the dismissal of another suit concerning alleged sexual abuse of unaccompanied migrant and asylum seeker children.

Under the leadership of Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, the Civil Rights Division has also backtracked on previous reports that highlighted abuses at several police departments across the country.

Bondi and Dhillon have responded to the letter by saying that they are safeguarding the agency’s traditional mission.

Hamas has said the ceasefire cannot move forward while Israel continues its violations of the agreement, with Gaza authorities saying the truce has been breached at least 738 times since taking effect in October.

Husam Badran, a Hamas official, called on mediators to increase pressure on Israel to fully implement its existing commitments.

“The next phase cannot begin as long as the [Israeli] occupation continues its violations of the agreement and evades its commitments,” Badran said.

“Hamas has asked the mediators to pressure the occupation to complete the implementation of the first phase,” he added.

The ceasefire, which came into effect on October 10, focused on the exchange of captives held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, and a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza.

But details of the next phase, including Gaza’s future governance, the potential deployment of an international stabilisation force, and the establishment of what has been termed a “board of peace”, remain unresolved.

Meanwhile, anger continues to rise among Palestinians and the international community as Israeli attacks persist. According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, Israeli attacks since the start of the ceasefire have killed at least 377 people and wounded 987.

Talks progressing, but major challenges remain

A United States official told Al Jazeera Arabic that negotiations on the next phase of the ceasefire are advancing, but key obstacles still need to be overcome.

The official said Washington expects the first deployment of an international stabilisation force to begin in early 2026.

Talks are currently focused on which countries would contribute to such a force, how it would be commanded and what its rules of engagement would be.

It comes as former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair has reportedly been dropped by the “board of peace”, a panel envisioned by the US to oversee redevelopment in Gaza.

The official said the US-backed ceasefire plan, endorsed by the United Nations Security Council, clearly stipulates Israel’s complete withdrawal from Gaza and Hamas’s disarmament.

They added that discussions are under way to form a police force drawn from the local population in Gaza.

The US is also aware of the increasing demands for humanitarian access, the official said, and is working to remove barriers to aid delivery.

Meanwhile, UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric responded to a claim by Israeli Lieutenant General Eyal Zamir that the so-called “yellow line”, currently marking Israeli-held territory inside Gaza, constitutes a “new border”.

Israeli forces have remained in about 58 percent of Gaza since a partial withdrawal to the yellow line. Under the ceasefire plan, Israeli forces are meant to withdraw fully from the territory, although there is no timeframe for a withdrawal in the agreement.

More Israeli strikes reported

The Israeli military has launched an air strike and artillery attacks on areas of Khan Younis still under its control. There have been no reports of casualties.

In northern Gaza, the Israeli army has continued building demolitions in Beit Lahiya.

“These actions constitute a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and a deliberate undermining of the essence of the ceasefire and the provisions of its attached humanitarian protocol,” Gaza authorities said in a statement.

Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinian people in Gaza has killed at least 70,366 Palestinians and wounded 171,064 since October 2023, according to Gaza health authorities.

It is Independence Day in Tanzania.

But instead of celebrations, the streets are largely silent. All official events were cancelled after opposition groups called for peaceful protests.

The government says any demonstration will be considered an attempted coup.

But many are still angry about October’s disputed election, which saw incumbent President Samia Suluhu Hassan re-elected with 98 percent of the vote,

They are also upset about the police crackdown that followed, in which hundreds were killed, according to the opposition.

The United States announced last week that it is “reconsidering its relationship” with Tanzania.

Are opposition voices being heard in Tanzania? Will international pressure make a difference?

And is the nation headed for further upheaval?

Presenter: Folly Bah Thibault

Guests:

Palamagamba Kabudi – Tanzania minister of information, culture, arts and sports

Dorothy Semu – ACT Wazelenko opposition party leader