U.S. says 364 children reunited

Lawyers claim detention of crime-victim visa applicants rises

President Donald Trump’s administration said Thursday that it has reunited 364 children ages 5 and older with their families after they were separated at the border, still leaving hundreds to go before a court-imposed deadline a week away.

The Justice Department reaffirmed in a court filing that it has identified 2,551 children who may be covered by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw’s order. More than 900 are either “not eligible or not yet known to be eligible,” the vast majority of them undergoing evaluation to verify parentage and ensure the children are safe.

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said he was concerned about the high number of children who have not been cleared for reunification.

The administration and the American Civil Liberties Union are due back in court today for the fifth time in two weeks as the judge holds tightly to next Thursday’s deadline for all children to be reunified. He set an earlier deadline of July 10 for dozens of children under 5.

The government has identified eight U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement locations to reunite children 5 and older, and people have been getting released throughout the Southwest this week.

On Monday, the judge put a temporary hold on deporting parents while the government prepares a response to the ACLU’s request for parents to have at least one week to decide whether to pursue asylum in the U.S. after they are reunited with their children.

Separately, lawyers across the country say they see a pattern of Immigration and Customs Enforcement stepping up the detention and deportation of people who have applied for the so-called “U visa.”

For victims of crime on U.S. soil who are living here without legal status, U visa, a special visa program, encourages them to help solve their cases and catch criminals, and often provides their only clear path to citizenship.

“These cases come up on the regular,” said Cecelia Friedman Levin, senior policy counsel at ASISTA, a group that works with advocates and attorneys helping immigrant survivors of violence. “What that does, to my mind, is undermines the spirit of the protection to begin with.”

Through the program, petitioners are able to get a visa, and then a green card, before eventually applying for citizenship. But because of a long process and apparent policy shifts — something Immigration and Customs Enforcement denies — migrants are now being swept up before they have a chance to legalize.

Their applications are still active even after they’re deported, but they can be separated from their families for years while they wait. And advocates argue some applicants came to the U.S. after fleeing violence or threats in their home countries and face danger if they return home, even temporarily.

Most important, they say, an undermined U visa program discourages the reporting of crimes committed in the U.S. because migrants are less likely to come forward as victims. That, they say, leaves perpetrators on the street to offend again.

Some of those fingered for deportation have also committed crimes of their own — often minor ones — while living in the country without legal status and came to authorities’ attention that way. But the program’s guidelines are clear: Even commission of some serious crimes doesn’t always disqualify an applicant.

Recently retired Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Thomas Homan, in a late April interview, denied any changes to U visa protocol. On June 21, the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees both the immigration agency and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, wrote “there have been no changes to … policies or procedures regarding the detention of victims or witnesses of crimes.”

There is no official count of how many people are being affected, but several attorneys nationwide say they see a pattern.

Cincinnati-based lawyer Deifilia Diaz said five clients were forced to leave. Alicia Kinsman, managing attorney at the Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants, had one in removal proceedings, and another attorney in Wisconsin reported her client was facing deportation. Los Angeles-based lawyer Alma Rosa Nieto said that as a legal analyst for Telemundo, she now fields questions she never received before about relatives who have been removed despite pending U visa petitions.

It’s also taking longer these days for U visas to get approved, meaning there is that much more time for authorities to deport people while they wait.

U visas — one of many visa classifications identified by letters, numbers or a combination of both — were established by Congress in 2000 as part of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act. They are limited to 10,000 per year to crime victims themselves, in addition to some for qualifying family members. The program has grown in popularity, and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services recently has been giving out around 18,000 visas total per year. By the end of the first quarter of fiscal year 2018, there were over 200,000 petitions pending.