Parents Of 545 Migrant Children Separated At The Border Cannot Be Found
According to court documents filed Tuesday night, court-appointed lawyers said that they have been unable to find parents of 545 children who were separated at the U.S. border with Mexico early in the Trump administration.
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As ABC7 notes, The Trump administration instituted a “zero tolerance” policy that separated migrant children and parents at the southern U.S. border in 2018. However, the administration admitted that they actually began separating families in 2017. Between those years, more than 2,700 children were taken away from their parents. A California federal court later ordered the federal government in June 2018 to reunify the families affected and end the policy.
As VOX reports, some of the children have been released to sponsors, who are typically family members or friends, but also include foster families. However, their parents, two-thirds of whom were deported before a federal judge ordered that they be identified and reunited with their children in 2018, either have not been located or have not been successfully contacted. The group Justice in Motion is continuing to work to locate the missing parents in Mexico and Central America, even though it has become more difficult amid the pandemic. The group said in a statement:
“While we have already located many deported parents, there are hundreds more who we are still trying to reach,” the group said in a statement. “It’s an arduous and time-consuming process on a good day.”
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