700 kids yet to be reunited as deadline looms
Trump administration says more than 1,800 children are back with their parents or sponsors
Shy children were given a meal and a plane or bus ticket to locations around the US as non-profit groups tried to smooth the way for children reunited with their parents as a deadline loomed following their separations at the US-Mexico border.
The Trump administration said Thursday that more than 1,800 children 5 years and older had been reunited with parents or sponsors hours before the deadline. That included 1,442 children who were returned to parents who were in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, and another 378 who were released under a variety of other circumstances. ■
But about 700 more remain separated, including 431 whose parents were deported, officials say. Those reunions take more time, effort and paperwork as authorities fly children back to Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
The court-ordered deadline has passed and now the federal judge in San Diego who ordered the reunifications must decide how to address the hundreds of still-separated children whose parents have been deported, as well as how much time, if any, reunified parents should be allowed to file asylum claims.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union representing separated parents, said Thursday it was unclear how long it might take to find the parents returned to their homelands. “I think it’s just going to be really hard detective work and hopefully we’re going to find them,” he said.
US District Judge Dana Sabraw will also consider the ACLU’s request to give reunified parents at least a week to consider if they wish to seek asylum. The government opposes the waiting period, and Sabraw has put a hold on deporting reunified families while the issue is decided.
On a parallel legal front over treatment of immigrant children, US District Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles was asked yesterday to appoint a special monitor to oversee detention facilities.