Official: Families to reunite as soon as possible
Separated immigrant children being held at South Florida shelters will be reunited with their parents as “expeditiously” as possible, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar told lawmakers Tuesday.
“We do not want any of these children to be separated from their parents any longer than is absolutely necessary under the law,“Azar said.
Trump signed an executive order last week that intends to keep families together, but figures provided by Azar’s agency show the number of separated children being held in shelters barely dropped since that order was signed.
At least eight separated children in Florida haven’t even been able to reach their parents, who may have been deported, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson’s staff.
Nationwide, the number of separated children in shelters has fallen from a high of more than 2,300 to 2,047, Azar told lawmakers. As many as 174 separated children have been held in Florida, according to Nelson’s office.
Confusion abounded on why the tally of separated children only dropped from 2,053 last Wednesday to the current count of 2,047. Federal officials wouldn’t say whether facilities are still accepting separated children.
A court order that doesn’t allow children to be kept with their parents in detention facilities for longer than 20 days is hampering efforts to reunite families, Azar said. He called on Congress to change the law to allow families to be held together in detention centers longer.
Azar’s agency oversees more than 85 shelters across the country where immigrant children are being held, according to data being compiled by the investigative news website Reveal and The Associated Press.
Three facilities are known to be housing separated immigrant children in Florida — the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children, His House Children’s Home in Miami Gardens and the Catholic Charities’ Msgr. Bryan Walsh Children's Village in Cutler Bay.
Nelson, a Democrat, and other senators grilled Azar about the Trump administration’s zero tolerance immigration crackdown during a Senate Finance Committee hearing.
Nelson asked the secretary what his agency was doing to reunite about 70 separated children being held at the Homestead temporary shelter. It is holding more than 1,000 teenagers — most of whom came to the United States without relatives, program director Leslie Wood said.
Azar said a sponsor — such as a relative or a parent already in the United States — could take the children. The
Three facilities in Florida are known to be housing separated immigrant children.
agency aims to connect parents with their children at least twice a week via phone or Skype, he said.
Nelson toured the Homestead facility on Saturday, and he said he spoke with an administrator about the reunification process Tuesday.
Of the 70 separated children in the facility, 62 have contacted their parents, according to Nelson’s office. Of those 62, two have requested their children be returned to their home country, while the remaining 60 have requested to be placed with a sponsor or relative in the United States. The remaining eight children have been unable to locate their families, and their parents may have already been deported, according to a release from Nelson’s office.
Azar disputed media reports from the border that show a confusing system where migrant parents are encountering difficulties in locating their children.
“There is no reason why any parent would not know where their child is located,” he said, adding that he could find any child in the agency’s care “with just basic keystrokes, within seconds.”
Tim Gamwell, assistant director of the Guatemalan-Maya Center in Lake Worth, said navigating the system is much more challenging for families than visiting a website.
Clients deal with incomplete information and unanswered phone lines, and for those who speak indigenous languages, communicating can be particularly challenging, he said.
Serving as a sponsor involves paperwork, background checks and home visits, Gamwell said.
“It's a lengthy process for someone who may have no experience with social services,” he said.
Azar did not provide a time frame for the reunification process, but he said he is working to “expeditiously get children out of our care.”
Parents in the country illegally who are deported can request that their children accompany them, according to Health and Human Services. In some cases, parents would rather their children remain in
the United States them, Azar said.
At a news conference Monday, U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, DWeston, said migrant parents could be released and monitored electronically, allowing them to be reunited with their children as they await court proceedings.
The vast majority of children in shelters — 83 percent — came to the United States without a parent or guardian, according to a fact sheet released by Health and Human Services. Gamwell said children traveling alone may have family in the United States they hope to join.
Azar said even babies have been abandoned at the border and must be cared for by his agency.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report. sswisher@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6634 or @SkylerSwisher