ACLU: 245 migrant kids still separated from parents
WASHINGTON — Nearly four months after U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the Trump administration to reunite the families separated at the border, 245 children remain in government custody. So cites a new analysis of government data released this week by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The separated children are scattered among 121 shelters in 17 states, with more than 40 percent going to facilities in Arizona, California and Texas. Parents for 175 of the children have been deported back to their home countries, while the parents of 70 children remain in the United States, choosing to pursue asylum on their own.
The ACLU used government data from an Oct. 15 status report to break down the numbers and explain why about nine percent of the children covered by Judge Sabraw’s order were still not with their parents. On average, they have spent 154 days in government custody, the ACLU said. A few have waited nearly a year.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump promises a renewed crackdown on the number of migrant families entering the United States. To deter them from crossing the border, one consideration is whether to launch a modified version of family separations. The Justice Department did not
It was after the ACLU sued the federal government over the separations earlier this year that, in July, Judge Sabraw ordered the reunification of 2,654 children with their parents. Still, nearly 250 remain in limbo.
“It’s taking forever,,” said the ACLU’s Lee Gelernt, lead attorney on the ACLU lawsuit. “It is an enormous task, but it’s the United States government. When they really prioritize something, they can get it done.”
By the numbers
According to the ACLU report:
Of the 175 children whose parents have been deported, 125 have decided, in consultation with their parents, to remain in the United States to live with other family members or sponsors and to pursue asylum on their own. Gelernt said the parents are not abandoning their children but are weighing things such as the dangers the child faces in the home country and the viability of their claim for asylum. “They are making agonizing decisions,” he said.
Twenty children whose parents were deported were waiting to be sent back to their native countries; 15 were awaiting submission of reunification forms; 10 are still weighing options with their parents.
The parents of five children have not been reached. Gelernt said phone numbers the government provided did not work, and advocacy groups must physically track the parents down.
The 70 still-separated children whose parents remain in the United States include 26 whose parents were labeled “unfit” or as presenting a “danger to the child” because of past charges or convictions — with unspecified criminal charges in several cases. Gelernt said some parents appear to be getting penalized based on prior immigration violations or “flimsy allegations” that did not result in convictions. “We don’t agree with the government that these families should not be reunited,” he said, citing testimony from advocates who say the parents present no danger.
One child has a parent in the custody of another federal agency, and the parents of two others are undergoing an “ongoing safety review.”
Parents of 27 children signed documents, while in U.S. custody, that allow their children to be released from federal custody to live with a sponsor. The government says the parents have “indicated an intent not to reunify.” But the children have not been released to sponsors, and the ACLU said parents may have misunderstood or been under duress when they signed the paperwork.
The ACLU report noted that for children over the age of 5: 1,423 were from Guatemala. 848 migrated from Honduras and 179 from El Salvador.
85 were from Brazil, Mexico, Romania and other countries.