Judge questions official’s sincerity
SAN DIEGO: A federal judge, responding to a plan to reunite children and parents separated at the border, said he was having second thoughts about his belief that the Trump administration was acting in good faith to comply with his orders.
The Justice Department on Friday filed a plan to reunite more than 2 500 children age five and older by a court-imposed deadline next Wednesday, using “truncated” procedures to verify parentage and perform background checks, which exclude DNA testing and other steps it took to reunite children under five.
The administration said the abbreviated vetting puts children at significant safety risk, but is needed to meet the deadline.
Chris Meekins, deputy assistant Health and Human Services (HHS) secretary for preparedness and response, filed a declaration that he is committed to meeting the deadline. But he does not believe “the placing of children into such situations is consistent with the mission of HHS or my core values”.
US District Judge Dana Sabraw took umbrage at Meekins’s statement, disputing the official’s interpretation of his orders and saying that safe reunification could and would occur by next Wednesday.
“It is clear from Mr Meekins’s declaration that HHS either does not understand the court’s orders or is acting in defiance of them,” the judge wrote late on Friday.
“At a minimum, it appears he is attempting to provide cover to defendants for their own conduct in the practice of family separation,” the judge pointed out.