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Thursday, November 15, marks 112 days since a federal judge’s reunification deadline, yet migrant children kidnapped from the arms of asylum seekers at the southern border continue to remain separated from their families, according to recent numbers from the Trump administration.
Of 25 children eligible for reunification, tweeted MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff, the parents of 18 have already been deported. Regarding three of those children, the court filing states that the “Steering Committee has advised that resolution will be delayed.” It’s unclear what this means, but looking back at some of the administration’s botched reunifications, that doesn’t sound good at all.
In October, Trump officials deported a 4 year old to her home country of Guatemala without first informing her parents. The girl, who had been separated from her dad for six months, was forced to spend “yet another night in a government-run shelter, according to Kids In Need of Defense.” In other instances, ACLU leaders have had to do the job of incompetent Trump officials and navigate “treacherous roads, distrustful communities and remote villages” to try to locate parents that Trump officials carelessly deported.
“We’re going to reach a time in the not-too-distant future,” Judge Dana Sabraw warned in September, “where a number of parents are not located.” It appears that time has already passed.
The filing further reveals that the administration has a separate group of separated kids in custody. Ninety-nine children still under custody have “deported parents who have chosen not to reunite,” MSNBC correspondent Jacob Soboroff tweeted. Perhaps some parents felt their child deserved a chance here. Perhaps others were coerced into being deported, as reports have indicated.
The state-sanctioned kidnapping of children continues as the administration has also unveiled an illegal asylum ban and floated the possibility of firing Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen for not being aggressive enough in mass deportation. Whether or not Nielsen is still in her job when the new Democratic House gets sworn in, she should still be hauled in front of as many committees as needed—since Sabraw, inexplicably, hasn’t held her in contempt for violating his order—to answer for this ongoing humanitarian crisis that will go down in history as one of the most shameful periods in U.S. history.