Judges reject Trump administration's request for delay of family reunification



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(SAN DIEGO) – A judge on Friday refused to grant the Trump administration a general extension of time to reunite children separated from their parents at the border, recognizing instead that more time may not be allowed. be justified only in specific cases. The administration said it needed more time to reunite 101 children under the age of 5 to ensure the safety of children and confirm their parenting relationships.

"There will always be a tension between a quick release and a safe release" Fabian, a lawyer from the Department of Justice.

US District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the administration to share a list of 101 children with the American Civil Liberties Union, which successfully sued to force meetings on Saturday afternoon. Both parties will try to determine over the weekend what cases deserve a delay in the effort to present a unified front in court Monday morning.

"The government must bring them together," said the judge. "It must meet the deadline unless there is an articulable reason."

The administration has matched 86 parents to 83 children and 16 are not matched yet, Fabian said. .

The deadline is July 10 for parents with children under 5 and July 26 for all others.

More than 2,000 children were separated from their parents after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in May that the zero tolerance policy was fully implemented, even if it meant dividing families. While the parents were criminally prosecuted, the children were under the care of the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump reversed his course on June 20 in an international outcry of opponents who said families should stay together. Service Secretary Alex Azar said fewer than 3,000 children would have been separated, but this includes the children who lost their parents during the trip, not just the parents who were arrested at the border

. In a court filing, they will not be able to confirm the filiation of a child before the deadline. They will need more time to take DNA samples or other evidence from parents who have been released from the government.

About half of the parents of the 101 children are in the custody of Immigration and Customs. Others have left the country or have been released, said Fabian. She said that it has been harder to reunite children when parents are out of government custody.

The judge, appointed by President George W. Bush, set the deadline last week, noting that "the situation has reached a critical level" Jonathan White, a health and social services official, has tabled to the court a statement that gives perhaps the most detailed account of what the government is doing and the obstacles it faces. Its database contains information about the parents of the children but was not designed to reunite families before the court deadline.

The ministry manually examined the cases of 11,800 children detained per night and weekends, White said. The results of this review are being validated.

DNA tests on swabs of parents and children take nearly a week, said White, who described the risk of placing children with non-significant adults.

"The government does not want to unnecessarily delay reunification or impose a burden on the members of the group," reads the deposit of the Ministry of Justice. "At the same time, however, the government has every interest in ensuring that any release of a child by a government is done in a manner that ensures the child's safety."

The ACLU sued in March Congolese woman who was separated from her daughter for five months after applying for asylum at a San Diego border post and a plaintiff. Brazilian asylum separated from his son since his arrest for illegal entry in August near the border between Texas and New Mexico. 19659019] [ad_2]
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