Trump Administration Says It Is Working to Reunite Families by Court Deadline

Wall Street Journal

By Louise Radnofsky and Arian Campo-Flores

July 04, 2018

Trump Administration Says It Is Working to Reunite Families by Court Deadline

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration, in a race to comply with a court order to reunite up to 3,000 children with adult family members who crossed the border illegally, said Thursday it is encountering significant logistical hurdles.

The federal government has until Tuesday to reunite children younger than 5 years old with their parents, under a court order issued last week by U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego. Older minors must be reconnected with their parents by July 26, the federal judge ruled.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, whose agency is tasked with the care of unaccompanied immigrant children in the U.S., told reporters the administration was working to overcome obstacles to follow the order but blamed the courts, Congress and immigrant parents for the crisis.

Mr. Azar said the agency had reviewed the files of more than 11,800 children currently in its custody to determine how many had been separated from an accompanying adult during a six-week period in which the Trump administration was prosecuting all adults for illegal entry. The agency concluded there were “under 3,000” separated children, of whom around 100 were under the age of 5, he said. An earlier count provided by the administration estimated about 2,000 to 2,300 children had been separated.

To speed the process of reuniting adults with very small children, Mr. Azar said the Department of Homeland Security had identified such parents and was relocating them to facilities “extremely close” to where the children were. The administration is also conducting DNA tests to verify familial relationships.

The agency’s computer systems wasn’t designed to distinguish between children who arrived alone and those separated from adults by the federal government, Mr. Azar said, leaving officials unable as late as Thursday to provide an exact count of how many minors in its care were subject to the court order for reunification.

“Any confusion is due to a broken immigration system and court orders, not here,” Mr. Azar said. “There is a surefire way to avoid separation from your children and that is present yourself at a legal border crossing and make the case that you have” for asylum, or stay home and apply to enter the U.S. from there.

“I wouldn’t get to stay with my children if I were in prison,” he added.

Mr. Azar accused the courts of seeking “micromanagement of child welfare” and setting artificial deadlines that left the administration concerned it wouldn’t have enough time to adequately vet the adults to whom it was turning over children to meet its normal standards for child safety.

Some immigration lawyers and advocates said they haven’t seen much evidence of the effort Mr. Azar said was under way, and many separated parents remain unclear about what process is in place to reunite them with their children.

“The only thing I have witnessed ICE do is facilitate communication between a minor detainee and the adult parent,” said Denali Wilson, a legal assistant with the Sante Fe Dreamers Project group, a legal-services organization in New Mexico that works with separated fathers . She said none of the fathers at the Cibola County Correctional Center have learned when or how they might reconnect with their children. Ms. Wilson said she would be surprised if the administration met the court-imposed deadline. “It was a poorly thought out policy,” she said.

Rep. Adam Schiff (D., Calif.) said Thursday he toured a shelter for separated children in Fullerton, Calif., and found the facilities clean and the staff caring. But he said most of the 16 children had been there for weeks, two had parents who were deported without them, and two still hadn’t spoken to a parent.

The separation of families after stepped-up prosecutions under the zero-tolerance policy sparked widespread outrage among lawmakers, the clergy and the general public. It came to an end last month when President Donald Trump signed an executive order terminating the practice.

Total apprehensions on the southern border fell in June for the first time since January, according to newly released data from Customs and Border Protection. From the start of October to the end of June, the number rose 17% compared with the same period a year ago, but is 6% lower than in the same period two years ago. ​

Mr. Azar said the administration has deployed hundreds of additional officials and is using cheek swabs to try to verify family relationships between children in his agency’s custody and adults in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security. Officials said the DNA findings would only be used for reunification.

He said the administration had already identified two parents with records of abuse against children.

Mr. Azar didn’t provide any figures on how many separated children had been reunited with parents or other family members.

Ivan Espinoza-Madrigal, executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice, said a client in the Boston area was released from detention and is trying to reunite with her 9-year-old son. The mother was told by the facility holding her son in the Houston area that she must undergo fingerprinting on July 12, followed 20 to 25 days later by an agency visit to the home where she is staying, according to Mr. Espinoza-Madrigal.

“These dates clearly fall outside the scope of the deadline imposed by the federal court,” he said.

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