In a status update filed Monday, the federal government informed the court that has ordered it to reunite over 2,500 separated children with their parents by July 26 in a class action filed by the ACLU seeking reunification of separated immigrant families, that over 460 parents of separated children over the age of 5 may have already been deported without their children. The government has continued to state that any parent who has left the country had the opportunity to bring their child with them, but advocacy groups question whether parents deported under those circumstances understood their options.
The government deported at least a dozen of the parents of separated children under the age of 5, and therefore failed to meet the July 10 reunification deadline that the court had issued with regard to those parents. It is not clear how the government plans to locate and reunite the hundreds of deported parents with the remaining children by the court’s next deadline. Judge Dana Sabraw, who is presiding over the case, has ordered a temporary halt on deportations of reunited families pending his decision on a request to grant families more time to review their options before being deported.
Additional Reading
Family reunions update: Hundreds of separated parents potentially deported, CNN, July 23, 2018
Joint Status Report filed July 23, 2018 in Ms. L. v. Immigration and Customs Enforcement et al., via Justia Dockets
Photo credit: Shutterstock.com / Stephanie Kenner