Border-cross charges vs. parents KOd
Federal officials unexpectedly dropped charges against 17 immigrants accused of entering the country illegally, and they now must find the children ripped from their arms under the “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
Immigration attorney Carlos Montezuma Garcia told NBC each of the 17 people are parents who remain “distraught and confused” despite the fact that they are no longer facing charges.
“There was not much reaction because the parents are worried,” the McAllen, Texas-based lawyer said. “Each of them, we talked to all 17, each one had their child taken away from them.”
The Texas Civil Rights Project has begun interviewing families in a bid to help them track their children through separate government systems. It was not immediately clear whether they would be reunited with their children, deported or simply released altogether.
For nearly a month, the Trump administration has been enforcing its “zero tolerance” policy, which allows for the Department of Justice to criminally prosecute each person who crosses the border outside of official ports of entry — including those seeking asylum. As a result, children have been separated from their families, hundreds of them photographed inside shelters with jaillike accommodations.
President Trump on Wednesday afternoon buckled under intense backlash and signed an executive order that would prevent the separation of children from their parents at the border.
While the President vowed to continue to prosecute everyone arrested for illegal entry, a senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection official told The Washington Post that the Border Patrol will no longer refer migrant parents to federal courthouses to face criminal charges.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, Sarah Isgur Flores, denied the report.
“The Washington Post never reached out to the department,” she said. “Their story is not accurate. There has been no change to the department's zero tolerance policy to prosecute adults who cross our border illegally instead of claiming asylum.”
The anonymous official told the Post the decision to end prosecution of those immigrants with children was a logistical one. It wouldn't be "feasible” to bring children to federal courtrooms while their parents appear before a judge, the official said.