(Image source from: Arizona Daily Sun)
The American Civil Liberties Union said it seems the Trump administration will miss a court-ordered deadline to reunite young children who were separated at the border with their parents in more than half of the cases.
On late Sunday, the ACLU said the management rendered it with a database of 102 children under 5 years old and that "appears likely that less than half will be reunited" by Tuesday's deadline.
The Justice Department asked United States District Judge Dana Sabraw for more time earlier this week but the judge on Friday did not grant a blanket extension, saying only that he would regard certain exceptions. He told the two sides to discuss possible exceptions over the weekend and report to him Monday.
The Justice Department said early Monday that the administration "worked tirelessly" since Friday "toward the shared goal of promptly reunifying families while ensuring the safety of the children."
"The results of that work have been highly encouraging, and the Department of Justice is eager to present its progress to the court on Monday and to chart a path forward to safely reunifying other families expeditiously," it said.
Children were progressively detached from their parents after Attorney General Jeff Sessions proclaimed in May that a zero-tolerance policy on illicitly entering the country was in full effect. While parents were criminally prosecuted, children were set in the detention of the Health and Human Services Department.
Trump reversed the immigration policy on June 20 amid a global outcry and said kin should persist together.
The deadlines were set on June 26 by Sabraw of Tuesday to reunify children under 5 with their parents and July 26 for elderly children. Sabraw, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, wrote that the "situation has reached a crisis level" and that the "chaotic circumstances" were of the government's own making.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday there were "under 3,000" children separated from their parents. Previously, he said 2,047.
"It's extremely disappointing that the Trump administration looks like it will fail to reunite even half the children under 5 with their parent," said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt. "These kids have already suffered so much because of this policy, and every extra day apart just adds to that pain."
By Sowmya Sangam
