El Salvador to refuse U.S. deportations until children are reunited with parents

The government of El Salvador said Thursday it won’t accept back deportees from the U.S. unless it’s certain they have gone through the full legal process and have been reunited with their children.

The Central American nation has been highly critical of the Trump administration’s zero tolerance border policy, demanding better treatment for thousands of its citizens who have fled horrific conditions at home and headed north to the U.S.

Some will qualify for asylum but most will have their claims rejected and the U.S. will attempt to deport them.

But without travel documents those deportations can’t take place.

El Salvador said it won’t issue those documents until it is sure children separated from their parents have been resolved.

That could add to the Trump administration’s difficulties as it tries to clear the family cases.

Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

President Trump on Wednesday reversed himself and ordered a halt to family separations, saying directing children and parents to be held together in immigration detention facilities. Under the previous practice parents charged with illegal immigration crimes had been sent to Justice Department jails, and since there are no family facilities in those jails the children had been sent to Health Department-run dorms.

While children won’t generally be separated going forward, at least 2,300 children were separated in May and June. The government is trying to figure out how to address the situation.

So far, it hasn’t announced any policy for reuniting those children with parents.