Trump administration tries to meet deadline to reunite families

The Trump administration worked Thursday to meet a court-imposed deadline to reunite thousands of children and parents forcibly separated at the U.S.-Mexico border, an enormous logistical effort to undo a practice that drew condemnation around the world.

Authorities have identified 2,551 children ages five and older who may be covered by the order, which requires them to be reunited with their parents by the end of day.

The effort was expected to fall short, partly because hundreds of parents may have already been deported without their children.

But by focusing only those deemed by the government to be “eligible” for reunification, federal officials were expected to claim success.

As of Tuesday, 1,012 parents had been reunified with children in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Hundreds more had been cleared and were just waiting on transportation.

The government was expected to provide the judge with an updated count by the end of Thursday.

Meanwhile, the Homeland Security Department’s internal watchdog said it would review the separation of families, along with the conditions at Border Protection facilities where migrant children are held, in response to scores of congressional requests to do so.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen told members of Congress on Wednesday that the administration was “on track” to meet the deadline, an assertion that was greeted with disbelief and anger by the all-Democratic Congressional Hispanic Caucus, according to people who attended. Nielsen declined to comment to reporters as she left the closed-door meeting.

For the last two weeks, children have been arriving steadily at ICE locations in Texas, Arizona and New Mexico to be reunited with parents. Faithbased and other groups have provided meals, clothing, legal advice and plane and bus tickets. The families are generally released, and parents are typically given ankle-monitoring bracelets and court dates before an immigration judge.

But confusion and fear linger after reunification.

Jose Dolores Munoz, 36, from El Salvador, was reunited with his seven-year-old daughter Friday, nearly two months after they were separated. His daughter cries when he leaves the house because she thinks he’s not coming back.

“She is afraid,” Munoz said in Spanish. “Yesterday I left her crying, she is telling me, ‘You are not coming back. You are lying. You are leaving me.”’

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego commended the government Tuesday for its recent efforts, calling it “a remarkable achievement.” Yet Sabraw also seized on the government’s assertion that 463 parents may be outside the United States. The Justice Department said this week that the number was based on case files and was under review, signalling it could change.

“It is the reality of a policy that was in place that resulted in large numbers of families being separated without forethought as to reunification and keeping track of people,” said Sabraw, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush.

Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union who represents the separated families, said the government is “letting themselves off the hook” by focusing on those it deems eligible and excluding parents who were deported or haven’t been located.

“I think the critical point to remember is that they are only reunifying by the deadline those families who they are claiming unilaterally are eligible for reunification by the deadline,” he told reporters. “The deadline is the deadline for just those parents and children the government says it can reunite.”

Lourdes de Leon, who turned herself in to immigration authorities, was deported to her native Guatemala on June 7 but her six-year-old son, Leo, remained in the U.S.