Home Unlabelled Federal Judge Finally Orders Trump Administration To Reunite The 2,700 Separated Children Of Migrant Families

Federal Judge Finally Orders Trump Administration To Reunite The 2,700 Separated Children Of Migrant Families

March 16, 2019
Read

Excited Jessica Chastain GIF

So, in case you haven’t heard, a federal judge has finally issued an injunction that calls for all children who were separated from their families to be returned to them, in an attempt to dissipate the damage done by Trump’s family separation policy.

In what is obviously a huge blow to the Trump administration’s family separation policy, US District Court Judge, Dana Sabraw, has issued a preliminary injunction which requires children to be reunited with their parents as soon as possible. As per the injunction in question, children who are younger than 5 must be reunited with their parents within 14 days, whereas older ones need to be returned to their families within 30 days.

The gravity of this entire situation has been gaining some serious mileage, even as the administration’s family detention center threatens to completely overflow with obviously distraught detainees. The Politico  has now reported that over 75% of the 3,326 beds within the detention center were already full as of June 20th last year. And in the many, many weeks since you can only imagine how many more have been housed within its harrowing walls.

The San Diego- based federal judge did not hold back at all while criticizing the Trump administration for embarking on a mission which involved such a severe degree of human consequence without proper and requisite planning at all

Sabraw actually referred to the whole troubling ordeal of traumatized children and terrified parents as “a chaotic circumstance of the Government’s own making,” while adding that the “startling reality” was the administration had neglected to be bothered to properly plan how to manage the separation of children from parents who are being held in immigration custody or otherwise referred for criminal prosecution… which, y’know, is pretty freakin’ true.

Their lack of foresight has resulted in over 2,300 children being recklessly torn away from their parents or guardians. The judge also penned a 24-page order that addressed the flaws in the administrations approach, among other things.

In this report, Sabraw wrote;

“The government readily keeps track of personal property of detainees in criminal and immigration proceedings. Money, important documents, and automobiles, to name a few, are routinely cataloged, stored, tracked and produced upon a detainee’s release, at all levels — state and federal, citizen and alien. Yet, the government has no system in place to keep track of, provide effective communication with, and promptly produce alien children. The unfortunate reality is that under the present system migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property. Certainly, that cannot satisfy the requirements of due process.”

Last week, President Trump hastily issued an executive order which called for the family separation policy to be rescinded. Of course, Trump’s administration did raise objections hoping to prevent Sabraw from issuing the injunction while they attempted to carry out the terms of Trump’s executive order… however they failed miserably in their quest to deter the judge from going forward with the preliminary injunction.

Sabraw’s injunction would mean that parents who have been separated from their children cannot be deported “unless the Class Member affirmatively, knowingly, and voluntarily declines to be reunited with the child prior to the Class Member’s deportation, or there is a determination that the parent is unfit or presents a danger to the child.” which is pretty amazing. Sabraw also prohibited any families from being separated in the future too, unless it’s under the guise of a few limited circumstances. I’m sure this will put a lot of poor, terrified parents and their children’s mind at ease, at least.

Sabraw, who was actually appointed by President George W. Bush also agreed to treat the case that was argued by Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, as a class action case, following a request to do so from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

In February, the civil liberties group had filed a lawsuit over the alleged separation of a mother, who was an asylum-seeker, from her 7-year-old son. The ACLU later added another plaintiff who had also been separated from her son after illegally crossing the border from Mexico. Sabraw is believed to have acted in response to this.

Meanwhile, a victorious Gelernt commented, “This ruling is an enormous victory for parents and children who thought they may never see each other again,” he said on Tuesday night. “Tears will be flowing in detention centers across the country when the families learn they will be reunited.”

Sabraw has pointed out that the Trump administration had indeed intruded on a constitutional due process right not to have one’s family separated on a whim, writing, “The right to family integrity still applies here. The context of the family separation practice at issue here, namely an international border, does not render the practice constitutional, nor does it shield the practice from judicial review.”

This glorious judge also insisted that it was infact the government’s duty to ensure that parents are truly reunited with their children and that the matter should definitely not be so easily dismissed by simply asking immigrants to call toll-free numbers in order to be able to locate their kids (Can you IMAGINE!?), most of whom are usually held in the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, or ORR.

After he faced serious, serious backlash for his ‘zero tolerance’ border strategy, Trump actually attempted to diffuse the tense situation by issuing an executive order on June 20th, which would allow for children to be indefinitely detained along with their migrant parents. Crazy.

However, the order eventually found itself in a very tangled web of logistical problems… one of which is the 1997 ‘Flores’ settlement agreement. As per the original agreement, children are to be released out to the “least restrictive setting” and cannot, in fact, be detained for more than 20 days.

The Justice Department has now requested a modification to the agreement that would then permit the detention of poor, innocent children along with their parents. Despite this, it isn’t likely that the Obama-appointed judge who is overseeing the case will actually agree to do so.

In a totally unrelated congressional hearing that took place on Tuesday, Alex Azar, who is the Health and Human Services Secretary announced that parents who were currently being held in immigration detention centers could only be reunited with their children if they agreed to be deported and dropped any claims for asylum, or if federal law was revised.

It seems to me like a good first step in the right direction, however, who knows how far will still have to go with this mess? One thing’s for sure, I know I’ll sleep better knowing that the families are another day closer to being reunited with each other.

What’s your view on this folks? Let me know in the comments, but remember to always be respectful of each other’s opinions! And don’t forget to share this with your friends and families so they can join in on the discussion too! x

 

The post Federal Judge Finally Orders Trump Administration To Reunite The 2,700 Separated Children Of Migrant Families appeared first on Go Social.



Tags :

No comments:

Subscribe to: Post Comments ( Atom )
Powered by Blogger.