Even with today's deadline to unify refugee children with their parents.
Today, marks the deadline for reuniting children detained at the US-Mexico border while trying to enter the country with their parents. But ever since the story broke, at every juncture the Trump administration has failed to rectify the serious lapse in judgment that has seen children housed in cages and pregnant women shackled. This latest one is no exception.
In a court filing yesterday, it seems some 700 children are still separated from their parents. According to Quartz, forty-six children under age 5 still have not been reunited with their parents. According to the BBC, “The reasons given included a lack of confirmed family ties, or a parent having a criminal record or a communicable disease.”
Wrapped up in legal quandaries, the race against time has done nothing but shine a light on the serious in competencies. Even retired judges are coming forward to offer their services and ease the backlog of cases.
It’s been thirty days since Californian court stepped in to halt the inhumane practice—and the Trump administration have been nothing but ill prepared. On July 6 they requested an extension after admitting to loosing track of 38 children, the day after the New York Times revealed that the paper trail between mothers, father and offspring was so patchy, volunteers were being recruited to help administer DNA tests, in a desperate effort to pair relatives.
Since the shocking stories came to light, civic rights groups have been hot on the heels of the governing bodies who thought the practice was acceptable in the first place. On July 9 American Civil Liberties Union appeared in a San Diego court, following up on a ruling just under two weeks previously requiring reunification of children under 5 within 14 days, and all children within 30 days. Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, expressed how the union are refusing to back down and will continue to hold the Trump administration’s “feet to the fire to get these kids reunited with their parents.” But in the face of widespread administrative chaos, the task of getting children back under the watchful eye of their parents is proving a harder task then some might think. Gelernt went on to say, “It’s extremely disappointing the government will not be in full compliance with the court order, but the judge has stepped in to manage this mess of the administration’s making.”
