Reunification of separated families easier said than done
US Citizenship and Immigration Services welcome 200 new citizens from 50 countries, July 3, 2018.- AFP |
At the end of June, a California judge gave the US
government 30 days to reunite families who had been separated at the border, 14
days if the children were younger than 5.
By Sr Bernadette Mary Reis, fsp
Time is ticking for US border authorities to reunite
children separated from their parents at the US border. The deadline handed
to them on June 27 by a California judge is 30 days, 14 days for children under
the age of 5. That task is easier said than done. In an interview with
Christine Reis, Director of the Human Rights Institute of the University of St
Thomas School of Law, Vatican News learned about the complications such
reunification entails.
Decision made too quickly
The “zero tolerance” decision “happened very quickly",
Ms Reis says, “and there was not appropriate planning”. In
addition, there is not adequate space to place all of those entering the US in
detention centers. According to Ms Reis, the three family detention centers in
operation are not “equipped to handle even a small portion” of
the immigrants who come in.
Complications
In order to reunite children with parents, “you have to be
able to prove that the child actually belongs to that parent,
you have to figure out where the parent has been transferred to, and where the
child has been transferred to”. Some of the children are so young that they
cannot communicate or verify who their parents are, she said.
Verification through documents, such as a birth certificate,
would take too long, according to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary,
Alex Azar. Therefore, HHS will now be using DNA testing to match children with
parents.
How many children have been separated?
There is still no exact understanding of how many children
have been separated. “They’re saying it’s upwards of 2,000”, Ms Reis said. “But
we really don’t know if its 24 hundred, 25 hundred”. That number has now risen
to about 3,000 due to a court order requiring HHS to reunite migrant families
who were separated before zero tolerance began.
Problems do not end with reunification
Once these very traumatized children and parents are
reunited, the problem is still not resolved. “If there is mandatory detention,
where do you keep everybody? Now you have to keep the families intact and we
don’t have the space”, Ms Reis said.
Deportation—with or without their children
Some parents already facing deportation are still not
reunited with their children. The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
has issued a new form entitled “Separated Parent’s Removal Form”. It
states that it is for “detained alien parents with administratively final
orders of removal”. These parents are “entitled to be reunited with their
child(ren) and may choose for their child(ren) to accompany them on their
removal or may choose to be removed without their child(ren)".
Lee Gelernt, of the American Civil Liberties Union, has said
that they have asked the government to stop using the form because it seems to
suggest that the “parents must waive their right to contest removal if they
want to get their child back”. Diane Eikenberry of the National Immigrant
Justice Center interprets the form as a “manifestion of the complete disregard
that ICE has for anyone’s ability to make a claim for protection, and not least
the children’s ability to do that”.
There is such confusion in the system that it has been
reported that parents who passed the credible fear interview, and are not
facing deportation, were given the form.
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