Biden admin won't tell USA TODAY why it's fighting migrant families separated at the border

The White House has continued to dodge questions on why the Department of Justice is going to great lengths to fight against monetary relief for migrant families separated at the border, including subjecting parents to lengthy examinations meant to weaken their trauma claims. Its lack of answers comes after USA TODAY and the Arizona Republic published a story on Monday revealing previously unseen details about the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. That reporting, among other things, found some government officials had believed the purpose of the plan was to harm families. In one case, a father said he was forced to sign documents agreeing to be deported without his daughter, but he couldn’t read what he signed. On Monday, during the White House briefing, a USA TODAY reporter asked press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre why the Justice Department continued to fight the cases despite Biden calling the policy a “moral and national shame.” Politics:DeSantis' administration breaks silence, defends relocating migrants to California Families with young children protest the separation of immigrant families with a march and sit-in at the Hart Senate Office Building, Thursday, July 26, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington. The Trump administration faces a court-imposed deadline Thursday to reunite thousands of children and parents who were forcibly separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. What did the White House say about separated families? Jean-Pierre largely repeated what the White House already had told USA TODAY and said Biden has repeatedly described the policy as a violation of “every norm of who we are as a nation.” She added that Biden ended the practice and created a task force meant to reunite families. That group has reunited at least 700 families, and the administration continues to support families, she said. She said work is still being done, though she declined to directly answer why government attorneys are fighting the tort claims brought by families in court. “When it comes to DOJ and what they’re doing and how they’re moving forward on their litigation, I am just not going to comment from here,” she said. A group of migrant families walks from the Rio Grande, the river separating the U.S. and Mexico in Texas, near McAllen, Texas, March 14, 2019. A Biden administration effort to reunite children and parents who were separated under then-President Donald Trump's zero-tolerance border policy has made increasing progress as it nears the end of its first year. The Department of Homeland Security planned on Dec. 23, 2021, to announce that 100 children, mostly from Central America, are back with their families and about 350 more reunifications are in process after it adopted measures to enhance the program. Biden himself has spoken out against the family separations policy, calling it “abhorrent,” and one of his earliest actions as president was to officially end the practice. His Justice Department attorneys, meanwhile, are fighting against tort claims brought by dozens of families the government separated. By refusing to settle these claims, advocates and families say, the government is asking those affected, including the children, to relive their pain or risk losing out on a payout. What did the USA TODAY Network reporting find? In reviewing hundreds of pages of court filings, reporters also found that government officials didn’t have a framework in place to track separated families and struggled to keep phone lines open to children in detention. The documents also revealed how immigration officials interpreted their orders to split families at the U.S.-Mexico border and how quickly those decisions were made. Shawn Jordan, a special operations supervisor for the Border Patrol in Arizona when the policy was in place, said agents couldn’t wait on criminal referrals from U.S. attorneys to separate families. Instead, the intent to separate was often enough. In another incident, Michelle Lee, an administrator with Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Arizona, gave approval to split a child and a parent after receiving an email on her BlackBerry in just two minutes. Esvin Fernando Arredondo of Guatemala reunites with his daughters Andrea, left, Keyli, right, and Alison, second from left, at Los Angeles International Airport after being separated during the Trump administration's wide-scale separation of immigrant families. Before the story’s publication, USA TODAY reached out to the Justice and Homeland Security departments. DHS declined to comment and referred questions to the Justice Department. The agency declined to comment on the cases but pointed USA TODAY toward a statement it had given in 2021 after monetary negotiations between the administration and families fell apart. “While the parties have been unable to reach a global settlement agreement at this time,” the statement read, “we remain committed to engaging with the plaintiffs and to bringing justice to the victims of this abhorrent policy.” For more information, visit us at https://www.beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com/.