November 11, 2020

Andrew Campbell 

US Justice Department lawyers now are facing a difficult task in finding  parents of 666, as 545 previously reported, children forcibly separated from their families under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy in 2018 across the US-Mexico border.

In July of 2017, the Department of Homeland Security installed a harsh program of criminal enforcement at El Paso near the Mexican border. Patrol authorities built up tall walls and militarized checkpoints along the US-Mexico border. Moreover, the zero-tolerance policy was adopted in 2018 by the Trump administration. Thus, hundreds of children, some as young as 5-years-old, were separated from their parents who were either deported back or kept in prison under federal custody. In June of 2018, a federal judge ordered the government to reunite these children in custody with their families. In the meantime, President Trump signed an executive order halting family separation, but the zero-tolerance still continues to a lesser extent.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has been responsible for taking care of these separated migrant children all these years. Meanwhile, two-thirds of their parents were reportedly deported back to Central America. The HSS stated all children have been appropriately discharged from detention. Since the US government has not kept properly track of their records, lawyers will have a difficult task in reuniting them with their families.

Photo:Webshot.