By Federal court order, the Trump administration was supposed to reunite children and parents who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border by July 10. The 100 Children under 5 years old who were detained by border officials were supposed to be reunited with their parents by July 10, but reports say that the Trump team has only reunited just over half of the families.
A Politico report reveals that Trump requested an alteration to a decades-old law known as the Flores Consent Decree that doesn’t allow children to be detained at the border for more than 20 days. This request was denied by Los Angeles U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee who called this request a “cynical attempt… to shift responsibility to the Judiciary…”
These new reports just show how flawed and reckless the “zero tolerance” policy was carried out. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the policy of separating children at the border as a deterrent to keep Mexicans and people from Latin America from even trying to cross over into the United States.
After a hesitant Donald Trump signed an executive order to reverse this policy, it was reported that more than 2,000 families have been separated with little to no records of where their family members are.
Some children were flown to different parts of the U.S. because their age required different care than what could be provided at the detention centers at the border, while some children are still in the United States while their parents have already been deported back to their home country.
Arizona Senator Jeff Flake said on CNN Monday that there will be a hearing on what went wrong with the zero-tolerance policy in the future. With the first of two deadlines now missed, Trump now has until July 26 for all separated families to be reunited.
