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A Federal judge ordered Tuesday, June 26, that all children affected by Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy back with their parents in 30 days.
“These families thought they might never see each other again. Tonight’s court ruling will change lives,” said Lee Gelernt of the ACLU’s Immigrant Rights Project.
Kids younger than 5 must be reunited with parents within 14 days; older children must be reunited within 30 days, according to the Los Angeles Times.
“Families belong together in communities, not in cages. Despite Trump’s attempt to clean up his manufactured crisis, the executive order issued last week keeps children in jail and continues to treat families cruelly and inhumanely,” said John Yang, executive director for Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
In a ruling brought about by a “chaotic circumstance of the government’s own making,” US District Judge Dana Sabraw noted “the unfortunate reality” of cars, money, and other personal items being tracked better than the more than 2,000 children who’ve so far been taken from their parents, per Politico. “Certainly, that cannot satisfy the requirements of due process.”
Under Sabraw’s mandate, parents also can’t be detained or deported without their kids, unless it’s shown a parent is unfit or otherwise poses a danger, and prompt phone contact between parents and kids must be allowed, per NBC News.
The court-ordered injunction was a response to a class-action lawsuit on behalf of two women separated from their children, including a Congolese woman who made headlines.
Sabraw’s ruling comes on the heels of an executive order from Donald Trump that was supposed to remedy the separations, but which stayed “silent on the issue of reuniting families that have already been separated or will be separated in the future,” wrote Sabraw, a George W. Bush appointee.
“Tears will be flowing in detention centers across the country when the families learn they will be reunited,” said Gelernt.
In a scathing 24-page order, U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw granted the American Civil Liberties Union the preliminary injunction the group had been seeking since March.
Sabraw said that it was of note that the government is capable of keeping track of “personal property of detainees in criminal and immigration proceedings … money, important documents, and automobiles, to name a few … yet, the government has no system in place to keep track of, provide effective communication with, and promptly produce alien children.”
As of yet, despite Trump’s executive order, there are doubts the federal government could comply with the judge’s order. According to media reports, the government hasn’t revealed any plans for reuniting the approximately 2000 children — including infants and toddlers who have not learned to speak yet – with their parents who remain in detention indefinitely beyond what is allowed under the Flores ruling, which limited detention for children to 20 days.
The Department of Homeland Security said that it would revert to the procedure employed during the Obama administration when families stayed together in detention. During the Obama era, when the 20 days were reached, the parents were released along with the children with the promise that they would return to the courts when a decision had been reached on their status.
“Unfortunately, more than ever, it is important that we look to the past and remember the lessons of Japanese internment,” said Rep. Mark Takano, D-CA. “It took 40 years for the American government to admit to its cruel and racist mistakes. I pray this Administration learns those lessons now and stops ripping families apart, swiftly reunites every family this has happened to, and ends it’s unnecessary “zero tolerance” policy of criminalizing refugees and asylum seekers.”
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