Article 3VMFV Despite Today's Court-Ordered Deadline, More Than 900 Migrant Children Remain Separated from Parents

Despite Today's Court-Ordered Deadline, More Than 900 Migrant Children Remain Separated from Parents

by
mail@democracynow.org (Democracy Now!)
from Democracy Now! on (#3VMFV)
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It has been nine weeks since the Trump administration sparked a national crisis by forcibly separating more than 2,500 migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border. Most were seeking asylum from violence in their home countries of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Instead, the parents were charged in federal court with a crime for illegally crossing the border, then held in jail and detention. The children, some still breastfeeding, were sent to shelters around the country. Today is the deadline federal District Judge Dana Sabraw set to reunite these families. But the process has been chaotic, and the government admits at least 900 children have yet to be reunited, and some 463 separated parents have been deported-even as their children remain in U.S. detention centers. Officials say the parents voluntarily agreed to leave their children behind. But in court papers filed Wednesday, the ACLU argued many parents say they were coerced or misled into signing forms they could not read, and were confused about what they were agreeing to. We speak to two immigration lawyers, Ofelia Calderon and Carlos Garcia. They are both representing and providing pro bono assistance to parents separated from their children, some of whom have still not been reunited by today's court-imposed deadline.

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