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By Julia Ainsley and Jacob Soboroff
WASHINGTON – Lawyers representing the Trump administration have told the federal judge responsible for reuniting separated migrant families that it would take one to two years to identify thousands of children.
Judge Dana Sabraw of the US District Court in California last month ordered that children separated prior to the entry into force of the government's "zero tolerance" policy be identified.
This order followed a report by the Inspector General of the Department of Health and Human Services who estimated that thousands of children had been separated before zero tolerance. The May-June 2018 policy systematically separated children from migrant parents who had crossed the border illegally.
After bringing together the majority of the more than 2,800 separated children at the time of zero tolerance, the Trump Administration opposed the identification and reunion of separated children prior to the adoption of the policy.
Department of Justice lawyers said the task was cumbersome, saying most of these children had been released by the government to live with sponsors.
Now, the lawyers of the administration "believe that the identification of all possible children … referred and revoked by (Health Services and Social Services) … would take at least 12 months and possibly up to # 39 to 24 months, "according to a document filed the Southern District of California Friday night.
Lee Gelernt, the ACLU's lead counsel in a lawsuit against Trump's administration for separation of the family, said Saturday that two years ago, it's only a matter of time. Is too long.
"We strongly oppose any plan that would give the government up to two years to find these children. The plan proposed by the government reflects the persistent refusal of the administration to treat these separations with the urgency they deserve, "he said.
"We are talking about the lives of children, potentially thousands of them," he said. "The government has been able to quickly mobilize resources to rescue these children from their families and it must now muster the necessary resources to repair the damage."
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