US Isn't Just Separating Children From Their Parents. It Also Has No Plan For Reuniting Them.

Source: Buzzfeed News



Even after a parent has completed their sentence for illegal entry, the US has no way to ensure that they are reunited with their children while they wait for an immigration judge to rule in their case.

Posted on June 18, 2018, at 4:04 p.m.

Adolfo Flores
BuzzFeed News Reporter
McAllen, Texas

Reporting From
McAllen, Texas

MCALLEN, Texas — Two months after the Trump administration began separating children from their parents along the US-Mexico border, immigration authorities cannot say what procedures exist to reunite children with their parents after the parents' illegal-entry cases have been resolved but their immigration case is still pending.

Nearly 2,000 children were separated from their parents in the first six weeks of the policy, ending May 31, according to statistics released by the Department of Homeland Security. But how many of those children's parents — DHS said the 1,995 children who'd been separated had been accompanied by 1,940 adults — have already had their illegal-entry cases resolved is unclear. Most such cases are resolved within days or weeks.

How and if US officials intend to reunite children whose parents are waiting for an immigration judge to make a decision on their case also is unknown.

"The logistics of the reunification are made on a case-by-case basis," Danielle Bennett, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the agency with responsibility for enforcing immigration law, told BuzzFeed News. But she said she could not give statistics for the number of families that have been reunified since the "zero tolerance" policy was announced April 19. Nor could she give examples of a successful reunification.



Read more: https://www.buzzfeed.com/adolfoflores/dhs-border-patrol-ice-orr-no-reunification-children-parents?bfsplash&utm_term=.qpWJAANE8#.pdA6vvYAJ