Group offers $20M to reunite families
Money collected online brought to D.C. in hopes of speeding the process
WASHINGTON — In dramatic fashion, a San Antonio-based group that provides legal services to immigrants on Tuesday presented the Trump administration with a $20 million check — donated funds it challenged the president to use to reunify families separated by his now-reversed zero-tolerance policy.
With the Capitol in the background, officials from RAICES and assorted Democratic lawmakers called on the administration to accept the money and use it to pay bonds to release the detained parents — mostly mothers —of the some 3,000 children who were split up by the government.
“This is a human rights abuse and cause for concern not only here in Congress but among the American people,” U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, DSan Antonio, said at a news conference. “There is a certain sadism that runs through some of the people there,” he added, referring to the White House.
The donation gesture — accompanied by a sweepstakes-style check made out to the Department of Homeland Security — happened on the same day that was the deadline set by a judge for the government to reunify all separated children under age 5 to their parents. The Trump administration has asked for more time, saying it can’t fully comply with the order.
Founded in 1986 in San Antonio, RAICES — Refugee And Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services — has found itself at the center of the national maelstrom over the separation of immigrant families.
What was once a low-profile nonprofit offering free and low-cost legal services to immigrants and asylumseekers morphed into a global phenomenon, once audio recordings of crying children and images of kids huddled in cages in detention centers surfaced.
A Facebook campaign to raise money for the immigrant families quickly went viral, and RAICES found itself sitting atop a growing pile of millions, as Americans from Silicon Valley to the Rio Grande Valley found an outlet for their outrage over the plight of immigrant families.
The $20 million is targeted for legal representation for unaccompanied minors and for bond payments to enable parents to be released from detention centers so they can be reunited with their children, according to a RAICES news release.
Bonds often costs between $5,000 and $10,000; the $20 million could pay for about 2,500 people, officials said.
Jonathan Ryan, head of the advocacy group, admonished the administration for separating families.
“(We’re) uniquely positioned to take on the task of paying bonds for parents separated from their children, one by one,” he said. “RAICES will do it, but the administration forced us into this position, and we demand that they end this now… We will write every single individual bond check. The administration’s actions have already put a a moral stain on the United States, and failure to accept this bond check will only delay and put reunification at risk.”
Under a ruling by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of the Southern District of California, the government has until July 26 to return all other minor detained children, including those 5 and older, to their families.
Castro said the fact that the administration was expected to reunite only 54 of the 102 children under age 5 by Tuesday’s deadline is a “cause for concern not only in Congress but among the American people.”
“Judge Sabraw should appoint a special master to take over this process,” he said. “We need answers, timelines, and details regarding reunification and we won’t rest easy until we know these children are back with their loved ones.”