{"id":612796,"date":"2018-08-10T14:51:11","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T20:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/?p=612796"},"modified":"2018-08-10T16:35:08","modified_gmt":"2018-08-10T22:35:08","slug":"hours-after-deadline-government-lays-out-plan-for-reuniting-kids-with-deported-parents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2018\/08\/hours-after-deadline-government-lays-out-plan-for-reuniting-kids-with-deported-parents\/","title":{"rendered":"Hours after deadline, government lays out plan for reuniting kids with deported parents"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_596944\"  class=\"wp-caption module image alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 771px;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-596944\" src=\"http:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-771x517.jpg\" alt=\"Port Isabel Detention Center\" width=\"771\" height=\"517\" srcset=\"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-771x517.jpg 771w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-336x225.jpg 336w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-768x515.jpg 768w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT-1170x784.jpg 1170w, https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/Port_Isabel_exterior_RL_TT.jpg 1250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 771px) 100vw, 771px\" \/><p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Reynaldo Leal \/ for The Texas Tribune<\/p><p class=\"wp-caption-text\">The main entrance to the Port Isabel Detention Center.<\/p><\/div>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Weeks ago, a federal judge ordered immigration officials to issue a plan for reuniting migrant children with parents who had already been deported.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">On Friday, when the government failed to provide one, the federal district judge, Dana Sabraw of San Diego, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/08\/03\/federal-government-deported-migrant-parents-400\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">called it<\/a> \u201cdisappointing\u201d and \u201cunacceptable.\u201d He gave the government until 3 p.m. Pacific Time on Thursday to lay out a plan.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">But when that deadline passed, the government said the procedure was \u201cstill undergoing final review, and will be filed with the Court shortly.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"module align-left half type-aside\">\n<h3>About this article<\/h3>\n<p>This article originally appeared in\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/08\/09\/no-plan-separated-families-deported-parents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Texas Tribune<\/a>,\u00a0a nonpartisan, nonprofit media organization that informs Texans and engages with them about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.<\/p>\n<\/aside>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Hours later, lawyers for the U.S. Department of Justice submitted that plan, which places a heavy burden on the American Civil Liberties Union, the advocacy group that successfully took the government to court this year to order the reunifications. The ACLU, the government said, will be responsible for locating the class members using some information provided by the government, establishing contact with parents and determining whether they wish to be reunified with their children.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">In the past, the ACLU has been critical of the government for passing the onus of reunifications onto them, emphasizing in court documents that \u201cthe government must bear the ultimate burden of finding the parents.\u201d<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">And last week, Sabraw chastised the federal government, telling them, \u201cFor every parent who is not located, there will be a permanently orphaned child \u2014 and that is 100 percent the responsibility of the administration.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The missed deadline is emblematic of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/24\/450-migrant-separated-families-deported-reunification-deadline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ongoing chaos<\/a> in the government\u2019s efforts to reunite the more than 2,500 migrant children <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/26\/migrant-families-separated-court-deadline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">taken from their parents<\/a> at the southwest border. In the past week, the government has reunited just 13 children with their parents, leaving 569 in government-contracted federal shelters.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Many of them are separated from their parents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/31\/federal-government-separated-families-deported-parents\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">by the U.S.-Mexico border<\/a>. Parents to 386 of those children were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/08\/03\/federal-government-deported-migrant-parents-400\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">deported<\/a> to their home countries, most to Guatemala and Honduras. The government says it has been in contact with most of those parents in the past seven days. But there are 26 children whose parents remain \u201cunder review.\u201d<!--more--><\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Other children are waiting to be reunited with parents who were released into the interior of the United States. The government has yet to make contact with the parents of 51 of those children.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Justice Department lawyers also wrote Thursday that parents to 163 children \u201cindicated desire against reunification.\u201d That number has precipitously dropped and grown again over the past several weeks, a change ACLU lawyers have called highly suspect.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">\u201cPlaintiffs have consistently raised concerns that many of these purported relinquishments were not made voluntarily,\u201d ACLU lawyers wrote in a court document Thursday evening.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Matthew Albence, an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/26\/migrant-families-separated-court-deadline\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">has said<\/a> every parent was offered the chance at reunification before deportation. But dozens of parents have complained that they were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/07\/26\/some-separated-migrant-parents-say-they-were-coerced-giving-their-kids\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">confused or coerced<\/a> when they signed away their rights to their children. It\u2019s one reason the ACLU has asked the government to provide more information, including contact information for all parents said to have relinquished their right to reunification \u2014 and one front of the ongoing battle over how much information about separated families the government must provide to the ACLU.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">The government and the Justice Department are set to appear before Sabraw on Friday for another status conference.<script src=\"https:\/\/cdn.texastribune.org\/pixel\/dot.min.29c708b3d0da5d17a725.js\" integrity=\"sha384-8Xwf\/TlQnmHiajg1t3dn8w4qlF1rmV33o5NAQVXYu0T2q3rHV5579zrSmRjh+XnM\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\" data-tt-canonical=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2018\/08\/09\/no-plan-separated-families-deported-parents\/\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The plan places a heavy burden on the American Civil Liberties Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":596944,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,234],"class_list":["post-612796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-and-analysis","tag-border-and-immigration","tag-children"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}