Over 700 Parents 'Ineligible' for Child Reunification

The Justice Department gives us an update
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Jul 26, 2018 6:45 PM CDT
Administration: 1,820 Kids Reunited After Border Split
Families with young children protest the separation of immigrant families with a sit-in at the Hart Senate Office Building, Thursday, July 26, 2018, on Capitol Hill in Washington.   (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

The Trump administration said Thursday that more than 1,800 children separated at the US-Mexico border have been reunited with parents and sponsors but hundreds remain apart, signaling a potentially arduous task ahead as it deals with the fallout of its "zero tolerance" policy on people entering the US illegally, per the AP. There have been 1,442 children five and older reunified with their parents in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody and 378 others who were released "in other appropriate circumstances," including to other sponsors, the Justice Department says in a court filing. Still, more than 700 parents were deemed not eligible or currently not eligible, many of whom may have been deported.

Among the 711 ineligible parents, 120 "waived reunification" with children and dozens of others were considered "adult red flags" that might endanger children, officials say, per the BBC. More than 2,500 children were separated from their parents at the border in the past several months amid a zero tolerance policy that criminally prosecuted anyone caught crossing illegally. Some children who had not seen their parents in weeks or months seemed slow to accept that they would not be abandoned again. "The government shouldn't be proud of the work they're doing on reunification," says an ACLU lawyer. "It should just be, 'We created this cruel, inhumane policy ... now we're trying to fix it in every way we can and make these families whole." Click for the full story.

(More illegal immigration stories.)

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