US misses court deadline to reunite immigrant families

THE US government missed a court deadline to reunite dozens of toddlers with their illegal immigrant parents after the families were forcibly separated at the border.

Under Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, more than 2,300 children were separated from their parents before he ended the practice with an executive order last month.

Dana Sabraw, a US district judge in San Diego, had set a deadline of late Tuesday for separated children under the age of five to be reunited with their families.

In trying to meet the deadline, the government began with a list of 102 young children, and said 54 were now back with their parents. The US Department of Justice also admitted in court that it might have mistakenly separated a toddler and father, who may be US citizens, for up to 12 months.

A spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union said the suggestion a US citizen had their child removed showed what a “mess” the situation was. Those that were reunited with their toddlers just before the deadline included Ever Reyes Mejia, who walked out of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement centre in Grand Rapids, Michigan, carrying his young son and the boy’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles backpack.

Abril Valdes, an immigration lawyer, said: “They were just holding them and hugging them and telling them that everything was fine, and that they were never going to be separated again.”

Lawyers for the US government said they could not meet the deadline for reuniting some children under five because they needed more time to track down the parents, who had already been deported or released from custody in the US. They said screening had discovered parents with serious criminal histories, five adults whose DNA tests showed they were not parents of the children they claimed to have, and one case of credible child abuse.

A spokesman for the US Department of Health and Human Services said: “Our process may not be as quick as some would like, but there is no question it is protecting children.” The US government faces a second court deadline on July 26 to reunite around 2,000 older children with their families.