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A federal judge has given the Trump administration six months to identify the potentially thousands of additional children it stole from families at the southern border, rejecting the two-year timeline brazenly put forward by government officials. “The order,” the American Civil Liberties Union said, “shows that the court continues to recognize the gravity of this situation.”
The Trump administration’s barbaric “zero tolerance” policy resulted in the state-sanctioned kidnapping of 2,800 children from families at the southern border, but a 2019 government watchdog report revealed that officials had stolen potentially thousands of kids from families before the official implementation of the policy in spring 2018.
The ACLU, which had sued for the reunification of families forcibly separated under the policy, returned to Judge Dana Sabraw’s courtroom to request that the federal government be forced to take responsibility for these additional families, which officials had adamantly refused to do. Sabraw rebuked the administration on this, saying, "It's important to recognize that we're talking about human beings. Every person needs to be accounted for."
The government now has until Oct. 25, though Sabraw indicated that could be adjusted if officials can make a case for it. ” The Washington Post reports, “Justice Department lawyers are expected to turn over the children’s names and contact information on a rolling basis to the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed the class-action lawsuit on behalf of the separated parents, so that they can contact the families and ensure that everyone has had the chance to reunite with their parents.”
“The court once again made clear that it was not prepared to put up with any delays,” the ACLU said in a statement, “and that these families must be found.” Family separation has continued in other manners. Border officials have falsely accused some parents of gang affiliation in order to justify taking their children, while a pair of brothers, separated at the border last year, were finally reunited last week after 183 days apart. Family separation remains a crisis.