US reunites 522 separated children
Central American migrants deported from the US without their children spoke of their anguish at seeing their families split under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” approach Saturday, as protesters kept up the pressure against the “barbaric” policy.
Trump on Wednesday signed an executive order to end his policy of family separations which have sparked domestic and global outrage after images of youngsters in cages were reported.
The department also said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has 2,053 separated minors in HHS-funded facilities “and is working with relevant agency partners to foster communications and work towards reuniting every minor and every parent or guardian via well-established reunification processes.”
Although the fate of more than 2,300 separated children remains unclear, at least 500 children have already been reunited with family members, CNN reported, quoting border officials.
How quickly the rest of the reunifications can be carried out remains a major question. Lawyers working to bring families back together said they were struggling through a labyrinthine process — while more migrants continue to arrive.
Trump in early May had ordered that all those crossing the border illegally would be arrested, and their children held separately as a result.
But in an about-face, he ordered an end to the splitting up of parents and children, saying it was administration policy to “maintain family unity...where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources.”
Jackie Speier, a California congresswoman, toured a facility in McAllen, Texas and, in a televised news conference, said she saw children “under the age of five who were segregated from their parents and were crying... They’re in cells and in cages.”
Another California congresswoman, Barbara Lee, added: “The children especially are traumatized,” and she called the Trump administration’s immigration policy “barbaric.”
Protest marches were scheduled this weekend in several cities, and advocacy groups calling for a nationwide “Families Belong Together” protest this Saturday.
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