(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Biden admin's task force has reunited more than 100 additional children since October [1] ['Daily Kos Staff', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-02-03 “Thanks to the tireless work of public servants across the federal government and the critical partnership of non-governmental organizations, the Department of Homeland Security and the Task Force it leads has thus far reunited more than 600 children who were separated from their families under the prior administration’s ‘zero-tolerance’ policy,” DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said. “We understand that our critical work is not finished,” he continued. The nearly 150 children who are close to being reunited are part of a group of nearly 1,000 children still separated from their families. That’s a number notably higher than what officials said in October. But the administration said this is due to new families stepping forward to identify themselves as having been ripped apart by the previous administration. “As of February 1, 2023, 2,926 separated children have been reunified, either before the establishment of the Task Force or through the leadership of the Task Force,” a fact sheet said. “The Task Force continues to coordinate outreach to families who were separated to ensure they are afforded the opportunity to reunite in the United States and receive critically needed behavioral health services to address the trauma they suffered,” Mayorkas continued. The task force said that more than 1,000 families have been provided with behavioral health case management services or behavioral health assessments and treatment. This now years-long effort is largely due to the previous administration’s intentional lack of record-keeping and swift deportation of parents while their children remained in the U.S., leaving advocates to even have to go door-to-door in Central America to seek out victims. Documentation would later reveal that former officials like former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar lied about their administration’s ability to quickly reunite families. Azar had in particular claimed some database that would turn up information in seconds. “Emails show Trump admin had 'no way to link' separated migrant children to parents,” NBC News reported. He lied. Former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who wanted to show no mercy to parents and pushed for the need to “take away children,” refused to be interviewed for an inspector general’s report. Humanitarian organization Physicians for Human Rights would go on to find that “cases of forcible family separation by the U.S. government … constituted torture.” While Biden has said he was “perfectly comfortable” with financial settlements for families, MSNBC’s Jacob Soboroff noted his administration has fought litigation in court. Settlement negotiations also broke down late last year after reports on talks generated outrage from Republicans. x And to date, nobody has been held accountable for Trump’s separation policy despite AG Garland saying it was “shameful” during his confirmation process, and that “I can't imagine anything worse than tearing parents from their children.” pic.twitter.com/m2JVnRYA7r — Jacob Soboroff (@jacobsoboroff) February 3, 2023 Parents have recounted in litigation how U.S. officials told them they would never see their children again. M.S.E., an asylum-seeker, said in court documents that she was told her child, J.M., would be put up for adoption. She was not even allowed a chance to hug her child goodbye. “M.S.E. repeatedly asked the officers about J.M., but they never explained what happened to J.M,” the complaint stated. “Instead, the officers said M.S.E. and the other parents would be deported, and their children would be put up for adoption. They told M.S.E. to forget about her son.” The Associated Press reported that Mayorkas had met a family that had been separated for three years. He said the mother relayed how her child “still could not understand how her mother would let her be separated,” not really understanding that her parent had no choice or voice in this horrific incident either. “She didn’t understand the force behind the separation.” “We remain steadfast in our commitment to fulfill President Biden’s pledge to reunify all children who were separated from their families under the ‘zero-tolerance’ policy to the greatest extent possible,” Mayorkas continued, “and we continue to work diligently to incorporate the foundational principle of family unity in our policies and operation.” RELATED STORIES: Physicians find family separation constituted torture, was 'form of enforced disappearance' Jeff Sessions refused to be interviewed for family separation report, DOJ inspector general confirms Separated mom was told to forget about her son because he would be put up for adoption, lawsuit says Listen to this episode of The Downballot for an in-depth analysis of the 2024 Arizona Senate race and the implications of Kyrsten Sinema's re-election decision. Special guest Victoria McGroary, the Executive Director of BOLD PAC, will also discuss the efforts to prevent losses among Hispanic voters and the fight against disinformation in Spanish language media. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/2/3/2150902/-Biden-admin-s-task-force-has-reunited-more-than-100-additional-children-since-October Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/