Half of young migrant children are not reunited with their parents

(WASHINGTON) – The Trump Administration said Thursday that all eligible young children who had been separated from their families because of his unsuspecting immigration policy were reunited with their parents.

But nearly half of the children They stayed away from their families for reasons of safety, expulsion from their parents and other problems, according to the administration .

The administration was mandated by the courts to reunite separated families between early May and June 20. executive order that stopped the separations. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on behalf of a woman who had been separated from her child, and Judge Dana Sabraw ordered that all children be reunited with their parents. "Throughout the reunification process, our goal has been the well-being of children and bringing them back into a safe environment," according to a statement from the heads of the three agencies responsible for child safety. process. "Of course, there is still a lot of hard work and similar obstacles to our teams to bring the remaining families together. The Trump administration does not approach this mission lightly.

Most of the meetings took place before the deadline set by the court, but the government admitted in a judicial filing that 19 were held on Wednesday and Thursday

. the filing by the court that the administration should be closely watched as the deadline of July 26 approaches to reunite more than 2,000 children aged 5 and over with their parents. He asked the judge to require that all parental relationships be checked and that all background checks be completed by Thursday next. He also asks for a daily report on the number of families reunited, starting on Tuesday.

The ACLU also proposed that the administration does not have a week to reunite 12 young children with their now deported parents, whom they were separated at the border. The clock would tick as soon as the parent would get travel documents for the child.

"There is no excuse for the missed deadline of the Trump administration," said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt. "The children are suffering because of this.The government has to bring these families together."

The administration said in its filing that it is difficult to determine how much time is needed and that reunifications should have place "according to a flexible schedule".

Both parties must return to court on Friday to develop their proposals. This will be the fourth hearing in eight days, an indication of how closely the judge is monitoring his deadlines.

US officials said that 46 of the children were not eligible to be reunited with their parents; a dozen parents have already been deported and are contacted by the administration. Nine were in custody of the United States Marshal Service for other offenses. They said that the location of an adult was unknown.

Among the expelled parents, officials said that they had chosen to leave their children behind. A deported father, however, told The Los Angeles Times earlier this week that he did not know what he was doing when he signed the documents to leave his child behind. It was not clear when he was one of dozens; no name has been made public.

In 22 other cases, adults raised safety concerns, they said. Officials stated that 11 adults had a serious criminal history, including cruelty to children, murder or human smuggling. Seven were not determined to be a parent, one had a fake birth certificate, one would have abused the child. Another planned to house the child with an adult accused of sexually abusing a child.

"The gravity of the crimes is the reason why we will not bring them together," said Matthew Albence of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement of 22 cases

The 46 children will remain under guardianship of Health and Human Services, who will continue to seek to place them with a sponsor, such as another family member or even a host family, as for the more than 10,000 other minors who arrived at United States without a parent. Children spend an average of 57 days in shelters before being placed with a sponsor. They have access to medical care and counseling, as well as to the school.

The zero tolerance policy requires the prosecution of any person caught crossing the border illegally. Because parents can not take their children to prison, they have been separated. The movement provoked an international outcry. At least 2,300 children were separated from approximately 2,200 adults until the signing of the decree. Federal officials struggled to reunite the children within a tight deadline of two weeks set by the judge.

Part of the question, according to officials in the administration, is that systems were not set up to reunite parents with their children. Health and social services manages their care inside the United States Homeland Security has control over adults in immigration detention, and the Department of Justice administers immigration courts .

Earlier this week, government prosecutors told Sabraw about 20 children under the age of 5 because he needed more time to find parents who had already been deported or released in the United States

Sabraw indicated that more time would be granted only in specific cases.

Elliot Spagat, an Associated Press reporter in San Diego, contributed to this report.