‘Zero tolerance’ policy scaled back

Prosecution halted of parents crossing illegally

McAllen, Texas — U.S. Border Patrol agents have stopped handing parents over to the Justice Department for prosecution when they are caught crossing the border illegally with their children, the head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said Monday.

The statement by Commissioner Kevin McAleenan marked a significant step back from the “zero tolerance” policy that the Trump admin- istration has pursued for the last two months, which has led to more than 2,000 children being taken from their parents. President Donald Trump issued an order Wednesday to stop separating families.

“We’re not prosecuting those parents,” McAleenan told reporters in a briefing here, “because of guidance in the (executive order) to maintain family unity.”

His statement came as White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the government was starting to “run out of space” to house people apprehended crossing the border. “We’re simply out of resources,” Sanders said.

At the same time, however, the administration has refused to say when — or if — most children who were taken from their parents in recent weeks would be reunited with them.

McAleenan said 538 children who had been taken from their families for short periods but had remained in

the custody of the Border Patrol have een reunited with parents.

But the fate of the considerably larger group of children who have been transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services remains much more uncertain.

On Saturday, the department said that as of last Wednesday, it had 2,053 “separated minors” in its custody. HHS officials and the White House have declined to provide updated figures to members of Congress or the public. Lawyers working with parents to find their children say they have faced a confusing and often unresponsive bureaucracy and no assurance that families will be reunified.

Advocates for immigrants say that in some cases, parents separated from their children and detained while awaiting a hearing on a claim for asylum are being given a choice: If they want to see their children, they must withdraw their asylum claims and agree to be deported.

“They went in and told the parents if you sign this, you can get your kids back,” said Jodi Goodwin, an attorney coordinating a “rapid response team” of about 10 volunteer lawyers aiding immigrants at Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas’ Rio Grande Valley.

Under U.S. law, people who enter the country and say they fear being persecuted in their home country are entitled to a hearing to determine if their claim is valid. In many cases, immigration judges reject those claims and the migrants are deported, but thousands of asylum claims have been approved.

Trump, in a Twitter message over the weekend, suggested he opposes that process, saying that “when somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came.”

On Monday, he repeated that sentiment. “We want a system where, when people come in illegally, they have to go out. And a nice simple system that works,” Trump told reporters during a photo session with King Abdullah II of Jordan. Abolishing asylum hearings would require Congress to change the law.

Advocates for the immigrants caught up in the enforcement process have filed at least three lawsuits challenging the administration’s policies. A fourth suit has been filed by Democratic state attorneys general.

One of the cases, filed by Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in federal court in Washington, argues that the government was separating children from their parents to punish the families, a penalty not authorized by law.

The suit also accuses the government of denying the immigrant families their right to due process.

Regardless of whether an asylum claim is valid, a person who crosses the border illegally can be charged with illegal entry, a misdemeanor. The administration since early May has been insisting on prosecuting all adults who are apprehended. Typically, after a brief stay in jail, they plead guilty and are sentenced to time served. But because minors cannot be sent to an adult jail, the prosecution has served as a reason for removing children from their parents.