711 Children Remain Separated Because The Trump Administration Deems Them “Ineligible”

The Trump Administration had been ordered by a federal court judge to reunite all children that had been separated at the border with their families. They were given two deadlines: the first deadline was in the beginning of July, which applied to small children, the second fell on July 26. That meant that upward to 3,000 children were ordered to be reunited before the end of the month.

That deadline has come and gone, and according to the Trump Administration they have reunited the kids under the court order, however, hundreds remain without their families. According to the Washington Post, 711 children are in government shelters “because their parents have criminal records, their cases remain under review or the parents are no longer in the United States, officials said.”

The technical term that the government is using as an excuse to not reunite these kids with their families is because their parents are “ineligible.”

Ineligible… meaning what? https://t.co/Yu0uPFoW0q

— Roselyn Sanchez (@Roselyn_Sanchez) July 30, 2018

Thankfully the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) isn’t letting this go. They have ordered the Trump Administration to deliver a list of names of these so-called “ineligible” parents, and a federal judge agrees with them.

NBC News reports that Judge Dana Sabraw of California has ordered the Trump administration release the names of the parents by this Wednesday, “including those who have been deported, those who have been released into the United States and those who were not reunited because of criminal history.”

The ACLU states that many of the parents who have already been deported without their children had no idea the legal work they were signing. The government basically issued them forms that stated they were waiving the rights to the children.

“In some cases, the parents said the forms were not explained to them and that they felt pressured to sign,” the ACLU stated. “Some were not provided translation in their native languages and had no idea what they had signed. One said he was told that signing the form was the only way to prevent his daughter from being sent back to Guatemala.”

If the government is able to provide the names and details of the parents, it’s very possible that these kids will see their family again.

On Friday, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said, according to CNN: “We want all the information from the government that they can provide, so we can help find those parents.”