Administration scrambles to undo separations
McALLEN, Texas — Trump administration officials say they have no clear plan on how to reunite the thousands of children separated from their families at the border since the implementation of a zero-tolerance policy in which anyone caught entering the U.S. illegally is criminally prosecuted.
“This policy is relatively new,” said Steven Wagner, an acting assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services “We’re still working through the experience of reunifying kids with their parents after adjudication.”
Federal officials say there are some methods parents can use to try to find their children: hotlines to call and an email address for those seeking information.
But advocates say it’s not that simple.
In a courtroom near the Rio Grande, lawyer Efren Olivares and his team with the Texas Civil Rights Project scribble down children’s names, birthdates and other details from handcuffed men and women waiting for court to begin. There are sometimes 80 of them in the same hearing.
The Texas Civil Rights Project works to document the separations in the hopes of helping them reunite with the children.
They have one hour to collect as much information as they can before the hearing begins. The immigrants plead guilty to entering the country illegally. They are typically sent to jail or to an immigration detention center. At this point, lawyers with the civil rights group often lose access to the detainees.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s executive order Wednesday may not do anything yet for the 2,300 or so children taken from their families since the policy was put into place.
“They should just give the kids back to their parents. This isn’t difficult,” said Lee Gelernt of the American Civil Liberties Union. A tent city houses migrant children suspected of illegal border crossings in Tornillo, a town near El Paso, Texas.