Trump Officials Say They Aren’t Responsible For Locating Deported Parents

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Courtesy: US Border Patrol

The latest twist in the separation of children from their parents on the border is baffling even from this White House. Politico reports:

“The Trump administration on Thursday informed a federal judge that it isn’t responsible for locating deported parents separated forcibly from their children at the southern border.

DOJ said in a court filing that the American Civil Liberties Union, which represents plaintiffs in a class-action lawsuit over family separations, should instead take the lead in reunifying deported parents with their children.”

Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project told News & Guts:

“The government appears to be taking the remarkable position that it is the job of private entities to find these parents, and it can largely sit back and wait for us to tell them when we find people.”

USA Today adds:

“ACLU lawyers argued that the Trump administration is trying to shirk its responsibility by passing its work off to private groups despite its own considerable resources.

‘Not only was it the government’s unconstitutional separation practice that led to this crisis, but the United States Government has far more resources than any group of NGOs (no matter how many NGOs and law firms are willing to help),’ they wrote.”

The Associated Press reports:

“A decision on how to bridge the differences falls to U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who has ordered that more than 2,500 children be reunited with their families. He was scheduled to speak with both sides in a conference call Friday.

As of Wednesday, 410 children whose parents were outside the country were in the custody of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department.”