As Thursday’s deadline toreunite separated familiesin the wake ofPresident Trump‘ssince-reversed “zero-tolerance” immigration policylooms near, the Trump administration acknowledged in a court filing Monday that more than 460 migrant parents may have been deported without their children — making reunification unlikely,The New York Timesreports.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the federal government put forward the joint court filingexplaining that 463 parents of migrant children are no longer present in the United States — though their children remain behind in U.S. government shelters.
The report warned that the cases are still “under review” and that the number could change. No reason was given for why the parents were no longer in the country.
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U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw of San Diego declared on June 26 that the government had a month to reunite children between the ages of 5 and 17 with their families.
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The Texas Tribunereports that538 more parents have been cleared for reunification(which means reunions are likely), while 217 others remain in the “reunification unclear” category because they have already been released into the United States and are therefore difficult to locate.
The 463 migrant parents who may have already been deported? They make up a group of 917 parents listed in the “reunification unlikely” category — which includes 260 people not yet eligible due to “further evaluation,” 64 who have prohibitive criminal records, and 130 who waived reunification,The Texas Tribunesaid.
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Thursday is the second court-ordered deadline federal officials have faced to reunite families.
The first deadline was on July 10, for children under the age of 5. On July 12, officials announced they had reunited 57 out of 103 toddlers, saying the other children were “ineligible.”
source: people.com
