Share

Judge: US can probably identify separated families sooner

Share

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A judge said Tuesday it appeared the Trump administration could identify potentially thousands of children who were separated from their families at the border in much less time than the one to two years officials want to complete the work, though he was reluctant to impose a deadline.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw asked lawyers for the administration and for the American Civil Liberties Union to reach an agreement before an April 24 hearing that will include Jonathan White, a U.S. Health and Human Services Department official who led a previous effort that reunited more than 2,700 children with their families.

The judge frequently praises White, saying Tuesday he had “great credibility” and was nonpartisan.

The Justice Department has said it will take as long as two years to review about 47,000 cases involving unaccompanied children who were taken into U.S. government custody between July 1, 2017, and June 25, 2018 — the day before Sabraw halted the general practice of splitting families and ordered that children in custody be reunited with their parents.

The ACLU said in a court filing Monday that the government’s timetable showed “callous disregard” for families and asked the judge to order that all separated families be identified in three months.

Sabraw said he was unprepared to set deadlines and that the two sides should quickly develop a joint plan. If those efforts fail, he said he would go the “old-fashioned way” of entertaining competing arguments and deciding himself, calling that route “a great disservice.”

Last year, the judge set tight deadlines to reunify more than 2,700 children, which was largely accomplished through frequent and sometimes contentious hearings in his San Diego courtroom.

In January, the Health and Human Services Department’s internal watchdog reported that thousands more children may have been separated from their families since the summer of 2017. The department’s inspector general said the precise number was unknown.

Sabraw ruled last month that he could hold the government accountable for those separated before his June order and asked the government to submit a proposal.

“This is a very significant issue, obviously,” Sabraw said Tuesday. “It is as important as the initial parent reunification, and the same care and attention and energy needs to be paid to this second reunification.”

White said in an affidavit earlier this month that the sheer volume of 47,000 cases makes the job different than identifying who among 12,000 children in custody at the time of the judge’s June order had been separated from their parents.

The ACLU said the government likely has a list of families that were separated after April 2018 or that it could produce one within days.

Sabraw warmed to the idea of dealing with those families first instead of waiting up to 12 weeks to design a statistical model to flag those children most likely to have been separated, as the administration has proposed.

“It just seems to me there’s a lot of low-hanging fruit here in the April, May, June timeframe … and the process can start right away,” the judge said.

The Western Journal has not reviewed this Associated Press story prior to publication. Therefore, it may contain editorial bias or may in some other way not meet our normal editorial standards. It is provided to our readers as a service from The Western Journal.

Truth and Accuracy

Submit a Correction →



We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

Tags:
Share
The Associated Press is an independent, not-for-profit news cooperative headquartered in New York City. Their teams in over 100 countries tell the world’s stories, from breaking news to investigative reporting. They provide content and services to help engage audiences worldwide, working with companies of all types, from broadcasters to brands. Photo credit: @AP on Twitter
The Associated Press was the first private sector organization in the U.S. to operate on a national scale. Over the past 170 years, they have been first to inform the world of many of history's most important moments, from the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the bombing of Pearl Harbor to the fall of the Shah of Iran and the death of Pope John Paul.

Today, they operate in 263 locations in more than 100 countries relaying breaking news, covering war and conflict and producing enterprise reports that tell the world's stories.
Location
New York City




Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.

Conversation