Immigration July 31, 2019

One Year After Judge Halts Family Separation, ACLU Finds Hundreds More Children Taken From Their Parents

TIJUANA, MEXICO - DECEMBER 01: A group of Honduran migrants, including children, who said they were part of the 'migrant caravan', are briefly detained along the U.S.-Mexico border barrier by Mexican police after unsuccessfully attempting to cross the border barrier into the U.S. on December 1, 2018 in Tijuana, Mexico. Mexican police officers said they would return the group to a new government shelter, located far from the border, for members of the 'migrant caravan'. Many of those in the caravan traveled for over a month from Central America to seek asylum in the U.S. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)

Despite an order from a federal judge, the Trump administration continues to separate migrant children from their families at the southern border. From The Associated Press:

“More than 900 children, including babies and toddlers, were separated from their parents at the border in the year after a judge ordered the practice be sharply curtailed, the American Civil Liberties Union said Tuesday in a legal attack that will invite more scrutiny of the Trump administration’s widely criticized tactics.“

In June of 2018, a judge ordered the practice of child separation halted except in extreme circumstances, such as threats to a child’s safety.

NEW: ACLU tells judge that more than 900 migrant children were separated from parents since last year; asks that the Trump admin. be blocked from continuing separations. https://t.co/hlypbKWC13
— MSNBC (@MSNBC) July 30, 2019

“The administration must not be allowed to circumvent the court order over infractions like minor traffic violations.” – ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt

The New York Times reports on circumstances for some of the removals.

“[S]ometimes for reasons as minor as a parent not changing a baby’s diaper or having a traffic citation for driving without a license, according to new documents filed Tuesday in federal court.“

“Family breakups have been imposed with even greater frequency in recent months under the Trump administration’s most widely debated immigration policy, ostensibly to protect the welfare of the children, but in many cases because of relatively minor criminal offenses in a parent’s past, such as shoplifting or public intoxication.”

According to the Times, separated migrant children spent an average of 68 days in shelters. Four children had been away from their parents for more than 300 days.