Report details start of family separations
Months before the Trump administration separated thousands of families at the U.S.-Mexico border, a “pilot program” in Texas left child-welfare officials scrambling to find empty beds for babies taken from their parents in a preview of bigger problems to come, according to a report released Thursday by congressional Democrats.
Documents suggest Health andHumanServices officials weren’t told by the Department of Homeland Security why shelters were receiving more children taken from their parents in late 2017. It has since been revealed that DHS was operating a pilot programin El Paso that prosecuted parents for crossing the border illegally and took their children away to HHS shelters.
“We had a shortage last night of beds for babies,” Jonathan White, a top HHS official, wrote in a Nov. 11, 2017, email. He added: “Overall, infant placements seem to be climbing over recent weeks, and we think that’s due to more separations frommothers by (Customs and Border Protection).”
The problems revealed by the pilot program presaged what would happen months later: government employees caring for babies and young children in so-called tender age shelters and many parents being deported without their kids. The consequences linger today: Lawyers working to reunite immigrant families have said they can’t reach the deported parents of 545 children who were separated as early as July 2017.
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee released the report shortly beforeElectionDay asDemocrats campaign against the Trump administration’s family separations, which stirred widespread outcry as part of its “zero tolerance” crackdown on illegal border crossings.
Democrat Joe Biden announced Thursday that, if elected, he would form a task force to reunite stillseparated families.
The pilot ran through November 2017. According to the inspector general, at least118 childrenwere taken from their parents.
The pilot program is believed to have been limited to the region around El Paso, including parts of New Mexico. Months later, the Trump administration began separating families all along the border. The report documents how different Border Patrol sectors had their own policies for which families to separate: the Big Bend sector in rural Texas initially exempted children 5 and younger, while the El Centro sector in California did not.
In June 2018, U.S. District JudgeDana Sabrawordered the government to reunite all migrant families. More than two years later, the process is still underway, with lawyers and nonprofits trying to find parents in Central America and elsewhere after their children were placed with sponsors in theU.S., usually relatives.
Kevin McAleenan, who was then commissioner of CBP, did not respond to a request for comment. The Homeland Security and Health andHuman Services departments did not respond to requests for comment.