Feds make progress on reuniting families from border separation

The government is making major strides toward reuniting immigrant parents with children who were separated from them after they illegally crossed the border, the government said in a new court filing Monday evening that says some 879 parents are now back together with their children.

Another 538 parents are ready to be reunited, and are just awaiting final transportation arrangements, the government said.

The Trump administration is racing a Thursday deadline to reunite as many of the families as it can.

The parents were separated from their children in the chaos surrounding President Trump’s zero-tolerance enforcement policy, which saw the parents jailed for illegally jumping the U.S.-Mexico border. A federal judge ruled the separations illegal, and ordered the administration to quickly reunite as many of the families as possible.

The government partially met a July 10 deadline for reuniting dozens of the youngest children, those under age 5, with their parents.

But reuniting the much bigger group of children ages 5 to 17 has been a tougher lift.

The government says there are as many as 2,551 parents who may have had children ages 5 to 17 taken from them under zero-tolerance.

Of those, 1,634 are likely eligible for reunification right now. Officials said most of them have already been reunited or will be connected as soon as they can be transported — but 217 parents were already released into the interior of the U.S. and haven’t yet been found.

At least 130 other parents refused to take their children back, saying they’d rather be deported alone, giving their children a chance to make an independent case for gaining a foothold in the U.S.

A top government official earlier this month told reporters he expected that outcome, saying the reason many of the parents attempted the journey in the first place was to smuggle their children into the U.S.

“They’re not going to generally take that child back with them after they’ve accomplished the smuggling,” said Matthew Albence, a top deportation official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing the parents who were separated, says it fears parents are being pressured to abandon their children and accept a speedy deportation.

“These parents urgently need consultations with lawyers, so that they do not mistakenly strand their children in the United States,” the ACLU said in its portion of Monday’s court filing.

The ACLU also wants a list of more than 400 immigrant parents who seem to have been deported from the U.S. while their children were still held in government custody.

The government had promised that list by Friday, but admitted Monday they are having trouble finalizing the list. They explained their failure by saying “some of this information is still under review.”

Some 64 parents are still in U.S. but cannot be reunited because they have criminal records or otherwise are considered dangers to their children.

And another 260 parents’ children have already been released into the U.S. in “appropriate circumstances,” the government said. That likely means they were released to other family sponsors willing to host the children while their immigration cases proceed.