According to NBC News , Justice Department attorneys claim that they plan on reuniting any “eligible” migrant families by the scheduled deadline on Thursday. So far, at least 1,600 parents have been deemed eligible to be reunited with their children. The whereabouts of many of migrant children and parents, however, still remain unknown.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw, who is helping separated migrant families file a class action lawsuit, claims, “This is a remarkable achievement.”
Still, Sabraw says he is concerned that the Justice Department has been unable to provide “more information on the parents whose status is unknown,” adding that he believes the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy is at fault for this mass disorganization.
According to Sarah Fabian, an attorney for the Justice Department, approximately 1,012 migrant parents have been reunited with their children. However, the total number of parents that have been deported is currently unknown.
During a conference on Monday, Sabraw said, “There has to be an accounting.”
“It’s the reality of a policy that was in place that resulted in large numbers of families being separated without forethought as to reunification and keeping track of people,” he said. “And that’s the fallout we’re seeing…It appears there’s a large number of parents who are unaccounted for or who may have been removed without their child.” Sabraw says he is hopeful that the ACLU will challenge a few of the reasons the Department of Justice considers certain parents ineligible.
The Justice Department filed on Monday that 463 migrant parents have been deported so far and will not qualify to be reunited with their children by the Thursday deadline. Of those 463 parents, only 85 signed waivers agreeing to be deported so that their child or children could seek asylum.
A lawyer for the ACLU, Lee Gelernt, however, claims that these parents were taken in large numbers and only given a few minutes to decide, many of whom were unaware of their legal rights.
For now, the ACLU has requested that reunited families spend a minimum of seven days together in order to provide them with enough time to seek legal counsel. One facility in South Texas is expected to receive 700 families by the Thursday deadline. According to Gelernt, “There’s no way in a couple of days to provide meaningful consultation.” However, the government believes that holding migrant families that long would be a waste of resources.
Referring to the separated families at the border either awaiting deportation or reunification, Gelernt simply said, “Things down there are a mess.”
