|
Attorney
General
Jeff
Sessions
and the
Trump
administration’s
Department
of
Homeland
Security
have
announced
that
they’ll
prosecute
all
adults
who
cross
the
US-Mexico
border
illegally
— even
if
they’re
seeking
asylum.
Families
will be
separated
as a
result
of this
policy,
with
parents
put in
criminal
custody
and
children
treated
as
“unaccompanied
minors.”
(John
Moore/Getty
Images) |
|
Watchdog:
Thousands
more
children
may have
been
separated
By
COLLEEN
LONG
and
RICARDO
ALONSO-ZALDIVAR
APNews.com
WASHINGTON
-
Thousands
more
migrant
children
may have
been
split
from
their
families
than the
Trump
administration
previously
reported,
in part
because
officials
were
stepping
up
family
separations
long
before
the
border
policy
that
prompted
international
outrage
last
spring,
a
government
watchdog
said
Thursday.
It’s
unclear
just how
many
family
separations
occurred
at the
U.S.-Mexico
border;
immigration
officials
are
allowed
under
longstanding
policy
to
separate
families
under
certain
circumstances.
Health
and
Human
Services,
the
agency
tasked
with
caring
for
migrant
children,
did not
adequately
track
them
until
after a
judge
ruled
that
children
must be
reunited
with
their
families,
according
to the
report
by the
agency’s
inspector
general.
Ann
Maxwell,
assistant
inspector
general
for
evaluations,
said the
number
of
children
removed
from
their
parents
was
certainly
larger
than the
2,737
listed
by the
government
in court
documents.
Those
documents
chronicled
separations
that
took
place as
parents
were
criminally
prosecuted
for
illegally
entering
the
country
under
President
Donald
Trump’s
“zero
tolerance”
policy.
“It’s
certainly
more,”
Maxwell
said.
“But
precisely
how much
more is
unknown.”
Maxwell
said
investigators
didn’t
have
specific
numbers,
but that
Health
and
Human
Services
staff
had
estimated
the
tally to
be in
the
thousands.
Lee
Gelernt,
an
American
Civil
Liberties
Union
attorney
who sued
on
behalf
of a
mother
separated
from her
son,
said the
separation
policy
“was a
cruel
disaster
from the
start.
This
report
reaffirms
that the
government
never
had a
clear
picture
of how
many
children
it
ripped
from
their
parents.”
Most
of the
tens of
thousands
of
children
who come
into
government
custody
cross
the
border
alone.
But the
report
found
that in
late
2016,
0.3
percent
of
children
turned
over to
Health
and
Human
Services
had
crossed
with a
parent
and were
separated.
By the
summer
of 2017,
that
percentage
had
grown to
3.6
percent,
officials
said.
The
watchdog
did not
give
exact
numbers,
but the
total
number
of
migrant
children
who
passed
through
the
agency’s
care
during
the 2017
budget
year was
40,810.
The
separated
children
had
already
been
released
to
sponsors,
who are
generally
parents
or other
close
relatives.
The
inspector
general
did not
say why
the
children
had been
separated
before
the
zero-tolerance
policy.
Immigration
officials
are
allowed
to take
a child
from a
parent
in
certain
cases —
serious
criminal
charges
against
a
parent,
concerns
over the
health
and
welfare
of a
child or
medical
concerns.
That
policy
has long
been in
place.
Katie
Waldman,
a
spokeswoman
for
Homeland
Security,
said the
report
reinforced
what
officials
have
long
said.
“For
more
than a
decade
it was
and
continues
to be
standard
for
apprehended
minors
to be
separated
when the
adult is
not the
parent
or legal
guardian,
the
child’s
safety
is at
risk” or
there’s
a record
of a
“serious
criminal
activity
by the
adult,”
she
said.
In
some
cases,
however,
Homeland
Security
officials
said a
parent
had a
criminal
history
but did
not
offer
details
on the
crimes,
the
watchdog
reported.
The
number
of
families
coming
across
the
border
has
grown
even as
overall
illegal
border
crossings
have
decreased
dramatically
compared
with
historic
trends.
Over the
past
three
months,
families
made up
the
majority
of
Border
Patrol
arrests.
The
Administration
for
Children
and
Families,
the
division
under
Health
and
Human
Services
that
manages
the care
of
unaccompanied
minors,
said it
generally
agreed
with the
findings
and
noted
the
report
did not
find
that the
agency
lost
track of
children
under
its
care. It
also
noted
new
policies
were in
place to
help
track
newly
separated
children.
And the
court
never
instructed
officials
to
determine
the
number
of
children
separated
before
the June
26
ruling.
Last
spring,
then-Attorney
General
Jeff
Sessions
said
anyone
caught
crossing
the
border
illegally
would be
criminally
prosecuted.
Families
were
brought
into
custody
by U.S.
Border
patrol
officials,
then
their
parents
taken to
criminal
court.
If the
parents
were
gone
longer
than 72
hours —
the
length
of time
Border
Patrol
is
allowed
to hold
children
— the
children
were
transferred
to the
custody
of
Health
and
Human
Services.
The
practice
prompted
an
outcry,
with
church
groups
and
lawmakers
calling
the
separations
inhumane.
Trump
ordered
an end
to the
separations
on June
20. At
the
time, a
federal
judge
who was
already
hearing
the case
of a
mother
separated
from her
son
ruled
that
children
must be
reunited
with
their
parents.
Since
the
court
order,
118
children
have
been
separated.
Despite
“considerable”
effort
by
Health
and
Human
Services
to
locate
all the
children
placed
in its
care,
the
report
said
officials
were
still
finding
new
cases as
long as
five
months
after
the
judge’s
order
requiring
reunifications.
“There
is even
less
visibility
for
separated
children
who fall
outside
the
court
case,”
investigators
concluded.
They
said
it’s not
clear
the
system
put in
place to
track
separated
children
is good
enough.
And the
lack of
detail
from
immigration
authorities
continues
to be an
issue.
The
border
remains
a
crucible
for the
Trump
administration,
with a
partial
government
shutdown
that has
dragged
on
nearly a
month
over the
president’s
demand
for $5.7
billion
for a
border
wall
that
congressional
Democrats
are
unwilling
to
provide.
The
inspector
general’s
office
was also
looking
into
other
aspects
of the
separations,
including
the
health
and
mental
well-being
of the
children
who had
been
separated.
It
expects
to have
other
reports
on the
topic.
Democratic
Rep.
Bennie
Thompson
of
Mississippi,
chairman
of the
House
Homeland
Security
Committee,
said he
would
hold the
government
accountable
in the
matter.
“The
Trump
administration,
with its
unique
blend of
incompetence,
cruelty,
and
disregard
for
basic
decency,
misled
the
American
public
on one
of its
most
heinous
policies
to
date,”
he said
in a
statement.
|
|
|
|
|
|