What's Keeping Migrant Families Apart

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS UNDER COURT orders to swiftly reunite the migrant families that were separated at the border under the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy.

- Maya Rhodan

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS UNDER COURT orders to swiftly reunite the migrant families that were separated at the border under the Trump Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. But efforts to get even the youngest children returned to their parents stalled as the Administration struggled to reverse a crisis of its own making.

In late June, a judge ruled that the 102 children under 5 who had been separated from their parents as a result of the policy needed to be returned to their families by July 10. In the case of those ages 5 and up—at least 2,000 minors—the Administration was given until July 26.

The first deadline has come and gone, and it was one the federal government could not fully meet. In many cases, the problem was simple if shocking: the government was ready to release the children but couldn’t yet verify with whom they belonged. At the same time, a little over a quarter of the separated children under 5 could not be reunited because the adults they arrived with were found to have serious criminal histories or no relation to the children or because they are currently being held in criminal custody. There is also one child in custody that the Department of Justice said could be a U.S. citizen.