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Judge: US Must Reunite Migrant Families or Face Penalties

by Reuters

   SAN DIEGO --

   A federal judge said Tuesday that the U.S. government would have to
   reunite 63 immigrant children under age 5 with their families by the
   end of the day or face penalties.

   Immigration officials separated the families after they had crossed
   into the United States from Mexico. U.S. Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego
   told government attorneys that he was sticking with reunion deadlines
   he set last month, when he ordered children under 5 to be reunited
   Tuesday and another 2,000 to be back with their parents by July 26.

   "These are firm deadlines. They are not aspirational goals," the judge
   said.

   The children were taken from their parents under President Donald
   Trump's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, which called for the
   prosecution and detention of adult immigrants crossing the border
   without authorization.

   Sabraw also asked the American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the
   lawsuit that led to Sabraw's June order, to file papers on Thursday
   suggesting remedies if the government had not reunified the 63 children
   by Tuesday "or within immediate proximity of today."

   The judge did not suggest what penalties could be applied.

   "The court has a range of options from significant fines to other types
   of relief," said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt.

   After public outcry and a court challenge, Trump stopped the separation
   of families last month.

   The government had asked Sabraw to extend the deadlines because it
   needed time to test DNA to confirm family relationships, run background
   checks, locate parents who had been released from custody and review
   parental fitness.

   In court filings, the ACLU has said the government is asking for
   needless provisions for reuniting families that would not happen if the
   families had not been separated in the first place.

   Sabraw's order included exceptions that might threaten the safety of
   the child. As a result, the number of children eligible to be reunited
   has shifted in recent days as the government has discovered some
   individuals were not parents as they claimed or had criminal records.

   Fleeing violence

   Many of the separated children are fleeing violence in Guatemala,
   Honduras and El Salvador, and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen
   Nielsen met with diplomats from those countries in Guatemala on Tuesday
   to discuss U.S. immigration policies.

   Some lawyers representing the separated children, who have been
   scattered into foster systems across the country, said the government
   was not telling them what would happen to their young clients.

   The Legal Aid Society in New York said it was representing at least two
   separated children under 5 years old who met the judge's criteria for
   reunification on Tuesday.

   One boy, from El Salvador, was due to be released to his mother,
   according to Beth Krause, the supervising attorney of Legal Aid's
   Immigrant Youth Project.

   "I have no details about where, when, under what conditions," she wrote
   in an email on Tuesday morning.

   The other boy, a Honduran, will remain with a foster family while the
   father remains in government custody, although it was not clear to
   Krause why.

   "I know very very little about this case," she said. "It's all very
   frustrating."

   Sabraw issued a protective order shielding children's names and some
   reunification details from disclosure.

   Trump was dismissive of reporters' questions about the missed deadline
   on Tuesday.

   "Tell people not to come to our country illegally," he said. "That's
   the solution."

   Some of the separated families arrived at U.S. ports of entry seeking
   asylum, which is not illegal.