More than 20% of the new separations — 185 children — are younger than 5 years old.
The Trump administration has separated 911 migrant children from their parents at the border since a San Diego federal judge last summer ordered an end to the systemic practice, the American Civil Liberties Union reported to the court Tuesday.
One father in detention was separated from his ill baby daughter after he decided to let her continue sleeping in his arms with a wet diaper, according to a sworn affidavit by an attorney. Other parents faced separation for such things as “malicious destruction of property” valued at $5, DUIs, shoplifting or fraud, according to government data given to the ACLU.“This issue has reached a critical juncture,” ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt wrote in his motion to the court.
The injunction included an order to reunify 2,800 families that had been separated under the policy, including about 400 parents who had been deported while their children remained in U.S. custody. In testimony to the House Oversight Committee this month, acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan characterized continuing family separations as rare among the 400,000 family groups that had crossed the border since October. He emphasized that the decisions are made by supervisors according to policy and court order.The ACLU argues the government is “systematically separating children from fit parents” in violation of a constitutional standard.
Other attorneys gave examples of incidents in which Customs and Border Protection officers alleged parents were lying about their family relationship, only to be proven right in DNA tests much later.
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