For Immediate Release
Contact: Dan Gordon, 617-651-0841
October 21, 2020                                     

Years Later, Hundreds of Families Remain Separated

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The government has not reunited, and in many cases has not located, the parents of about 550 children after it separated them in a pilot program in 2017, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a court filing Tuesday.

Many of the parents were deported before a judge ordered that they be found, according to NBC News. And according to an NPR report today, the government also has not found about 360 of the children.

The report follows news earlier this month that the Trump administration deliberately separated families at the U.S.-Mexico border under its “zero tolerance” policy in 2018, according to a draft DHS report. The new filing addresses a pilot program in 2017 that preceded “zero tolerance.”

“These families’ anguish is America’s anguish, and our shame,” said Ali Noorani, President and CEO of the National Immigration Forum. “In a nation where family unity is a fundamental value, the administration separated families intentionally, with no way of tracking or reuniting them.

“This is negligence layered on cruelty. The government separated these parents and children, and it should be doing more to find them.

“The question we should all be asking: Who is being held accountable?”

###