Time’s Up: Trump Misses Second Court-Imposed Deadline, Fails to Reunite Nearly 3,000 Children

WASHINGTON, D.C. —The Trump administration missed the court-imposed July 26th deadline to reunite all of the nearly 3,000 separated children with their families. Of the 3,000 children, reports state that at least 700 children remain in the Office of Refugee Resettlement custody without their parents, and over 900 parents remain in U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) prisons without their children because the administration has deemed them “ineligible” to be reunited. Previously, the administration had also missed the deadline to reunite kids under five years of age with their parents. Yesenia Chavez, policy analyst for the National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health, issued the following statement:

“Surprising no one, the Trump administration has failed to fix the family separation disaster that they intentionally created under their extreme “zero tolerance” policy that was put in place as an ineffective deterrent for migrants to discontinue seeking refuge in the United States. Not only did the administration separate thousands of immigrant children from their parents without a plan or system for how to reunite them, but they tricked and coerced nearly 500 parents into being deported without their kids and have no plan for reunifying those either. There are no excuses that will set right the administration’s cruel, xenophobic, and racist efforts to rip apart and deport immigrant families en masse. Congress and the courts must act now to abolish and defund ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) who are endangering our communities. Our government should not be funding inhumane indefinite family detention and family separation. We call for an end to this crisis, and demand all families to be reunited, without exceptions.”

For more information on NLIRH’s fight for health, dignity and justice, visit us at latinainstitute.org or follow us on Facebook and Twitter @NLIRH.

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The National Latina Institute for Reproductive Health is the only national reproductive justice organization dedicated to building Latina power to advance health, dignity, and justice for 28 million Latinas, their families, and communities in the United States through leadership development, community mobilization, policy advocacy, and strategic communications