Attorneys responsible for identifying and locating the families of the minors who were separated on the southern border of the United States under the Donald Trump Administration have not been able to locate the parents of 545 of these children, according to the American Civil Liberties Union ( ACLU for its acronym in English).
The government introduced a “zero tolerance” policy on the border with Mexico in 2018, which resulted in the indiscriminate separation of some 2,800 families. Most of them were still in custody in the United States when an executive order ended this controversial measure.
However, more than 1,000 parents separated from their children had already been deported when a federal judge in California ordered several law firms, including those from the ACLU, to try to reunify these migrant families, according to NBC News.
The deputy director of the ACLU Immigrant Rights project, Lee Gelernt, has lamented the “tragic reality” and acknowledged that there is “much more work to do”, although he has said “not knowing” when the search can be completed. “We will not stop until we locate each and every one of the families, no matter how long it takes,” he promised.
Of the more than a thousand families separated as of 2017, and taking data from the Department of Homeland Security as a reference, this commission has so far been able to contact the parents of more than 550 minors and hopes that about 25 will be able to return to the United States to finalize reunification.
Some families have rejected reunification and, instead, have allowed children to stay in the United States with other relatives or guardians, “because of their fear of what could happen to their children if they return” to their countries of origin. , mainly in Central America.
