Deadline To Reunite Migrant Families Expires

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

This Thursday the deadline set by a federal judge in California for the administration of President Donald Trump to reunite migrant children who were separated from their parents when crossing the border between Mexico and the United States.

On June 27, Judge Dana M. Sabraw ruled that children five years of age and younger should be reunited with their parents within a period of no more than 14 days and that the same should apply to those over the age of five within a period of over 30 days.

The massive separation of families began in early May, after Secretary of State Jeff Sessions announced that there would be "zero tolerance" for those who crossed without papers. The practice caused such outrage and condemnation - even internationally - that on June 20 President Donald Trump announced that the families who were detained would no longer be separated from their children.

The almost 3,000 children who were arrested came from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala -mainly- and little by little they were scattered throughout the country to be placed in detention centers and shelters. Reports from multiple sources assure that many of the minor children were placed in cages, that they were full of lice, that they were not given access to proper hygiene and that they were even forced to take medicines, some of them psychotropic, to control their behavior., as is the case of a center in Texas.

Reunification has been further complicated because many minors have been unable to communicate due to language barriers, as some speak Mayan and other regional languages. To date, 37 children remain in custody without their parents being identified.

But perhaps what has complicated things the most is the deportation of more than 463 parents who have been sent to their place of origin, as confirmed by DemocracyNow.org. As if this were not enough, according to The New York Times, at least 917 parents did not pass sufficient tests to be able to claim their children for having a criminal history or lacking paternity tests.

Initial reports indicated that many of the parents agreed to be deported even though their children remained in detention centers or shelters. However, the Civil Liberties Association (ACLU, for its acronym in English) filed an allegation in court on Wednesday claiming that many of those parents "were forced" or were not clearly explained what they were signing when accessing their deportation.

Many of the parents confessed that they were “confused” when signing the documents and that they were not sure what they were agreeing to when signing.

The #IAmAChild campaign, one of several initiatives that seeks the reunification of families:

The reunification work has been made possible largely by organizations such as the aforementioned ACLU and the Texas Center for Refugees and Immigrants, known as RAICES. Even billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates have donated money to fund the legal defense of families.

For their part, lawyers representing the government said that the parents of the children who were deported will not be readmitted to the country to pick up their children. However, they admitted that the parents must be located and fully identified before the children are sent to their respective countries of origin.