US passes buck over kids

– The US government told a federal court judge volunteers and non-profit groups, rather than government officials, should take the lead in locating more than 400 immigrant parents who were separated from their children at the US-Mexico border and deported from the US.

The proposal came in a San Diego Federal Court lawsuit challenging about 2 500 family separations initiated by the Trump administration as part of its “zero tolerance” policy to curb illegal immigration.

In the case, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the government to reunify the families by July 26, but that deadline was not fully met.

While more than 1 900 children have been reunited with their families, hundreds remain separated, including the children of more than 400 parents no longer in the United States, according to the government’s latest filing.

In its plan for reuniting those families, attorneys from the Department of Justice said the government would supply what information it had about the deported parents to the plaintiffs’ attorneys.

At that point, the filing said, “plaintiffs’ counsel should use their considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers, and others,” to establish contact with deported parents and determine their wishes.

The ACLU has repeatedly said it would assist with efforts to find the deported parents, but the group made clear in Thursday’s filing that it expected the US government to bear responsibility for locating them.

Most of the removed parents were returned to their home countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

“Not only was it the government’s unconstitutional separation practice that led to this crisis, but the government has far more resources than any group of NGOs,” the ACLU said in the filing.

The ACLU said the government seemed not to have addresses for about 120 of the deported parents. Government lawyers said they would need until August 10 to go through the files of the children of those parents to find information that could help in the search.

Judge Sabraw is expected to decide soon when to lift a stay that prohibits rapid deportation of reunited families. – Reuters