New York Times
By Robert Pear
June 27, 2018
WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials said on Wednesday that it would be difficult to comply with the timetable in a federal court order requiring the reunification of migrant children and parents who were separated at the border.
Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the Federal District Court in San Diego issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday that stops the practice of separating children and parents.
And he set a strict timetable. Children under the age of 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days, he said, and other minor children must be reunited within 30 days — unless a parent is found to be unfit or to present a danger to the child.
The ruling came as a surprise to Trump administration officials responsible for more than 2,000 children who have been separated from their parents and are being held at more than 100 sites in 17 states.
Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services said they were trying to put children and parents in touch with one another, but were not planning to release children while their parents were being detained to face prosecution on charges of trying to enter the United States illegally.
Moreover, the officials said, they must confirm that adults claiming children are actually their parents, and that the adults pose no danger to the children.
Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, told a Senate committee on Tuesday that his department had custody of 2,047 migrant children who had been separated from their parents.
Before releasing the children to parents or other relatives, he said, the government must “vet them.” That task can take weeks, officials said.
“These children are often being captured by traffickers, gangs, cartels,” Mr. Azar said. “That journey through Mexico is a horrific journey of rape and violence and deprivation. We do see traffickers and very evil people sometimes claiming to be the parents of children.”
Jonathan White, a Public Health Service officer, said that to confirm the relationship between a child and a potential sponsor, the federal government may request a birth certificate or use DNA testing or “other biometrics.” Also, he said, the government tries to do a criminal-background check, using F.B.I. fingerprint records, and may search sex offender registries.
The Department of Health and Human Services is working with various agencies “to facilitate the reunification of each child with their parent or family as soon as that is practical,” Mr. White said.
The Trump administration asked a federal court in Los Angeles last week to modify a 1997 court settlement that it said prohibits the federal government from keeping children in immigration detention centers for more than 20 days.
Because of that settlement, Mr. Azar said, it is difficult to reunite families while the parents are in custody.
“We’re not allowed to have a child be with the parent who is in custody of the Department of Homeland Security for more than 20 days,” Mr. Azar said. “And so, until we can get Congress to change that law to — the forcible separation of the family units — we’ll hold them or place them with another family relative in the United States.”
“We need Congress to fix that,” Mr. Azar said.
Mr. White said the Department of Health and Human Services was also holding, in its shelters, about 9,000 children who did not have a legal immigration status and were not accompanied by parents or guardians.
In his order on Tuesday, Judge Sabraw said that actions by federal agencies had “resulted in the casual, if not deliberate, separation of families that lawfully present at the port of entry, not just those who cross into the country illegally.”
Moreover, he said, “some parents have already been deported without their children, who remain in government facilities in the United States.”
Officials said they did not know how many children were in that situation.
Echoing the judge’s comments, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, said: “This is a manufactured crisis, plain and simple. Previous presidents have found ways to enforce our immigration laws without separating children from their parents.”
For more information, go to: www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com
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