US to update judge as deadline approaches to reunite migrant children

(Reuters) – The US government will inform a federal judge on Tuesday of its efforts to meet Thursday's deadline to reunite nearly 2,500 immigrant children and parents separated by civil servants when they cross the US-Mexico border.

On Monday, at least 879 parents had 463 They may have been deported without their child, which makes it unclear when these parents will return with their child, according to a joint statement from the government and the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Trump administration ordered the separation of families in May as part of a "zero tolerance" policy aimed at discouraging illegal immigration.

President Donald Trump ended the practice at the end of June, after video images of children sitting in cages and the audio of the children lamenting had sparked the news. International outrage.

U.S. Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ordered last month that the government had to reunite children by Thursday in a case that was brought by the ACLU.

Judge can use Tuesday's hearing to consider an ACLU claim that parents subject to final removal orders will not be deported for at least a week after having been reunited with their children. The rights group said the time was needed for parents to consider the legal options for their children, which might be better to stay in the US to ask for asylum. Most parents fled violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

The reunification process was tainted by disarray within government agencies, the difficulty of tracking adults and children in detention, and the lack of communication with immigrant advocates.

The government reunited children under 5 at the beginning of the month, although it missed a deadline set by the court, which it partly attributed to procedures such as the audit Parental history to ensure the safety of children.

Sabraw criticized the government for unnecessary security measures that would never have been implemented if families had not been separated by the government.

During the past week, the judge said that he had been encouraged by the signs that the government was putting more emphasis on meeting the deadline for reunification.