San Diego,jul 17:
A federal judge on Monday ordered a temporary halt to deportations of immigrant families reunited after being separated at the border, as the Trump administration races to meet a July 26 deadline for putting more than 2,500 children back in their parents’ arms.
US District Judge Dana Sabraw imposed a delay of at least a week after a request from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which cited “persistent and increasing rumors … that mass deportations may be carried out imminently and immediately upon reunification.”
The hearing in San Diego occurred as the government accelerated reunifications at eight unidentified US Immigration and Customs Enforcement locations. The families are scattered around the country, the adults at immigration detention centers, the children at shelters overseen by the government.Annunciation House, a shelter in El Paso, said the government has begun transporting children in a “tremendous amount of airline flights” to El Paso and elsewhere. Director Ruben Garcia said he is preparing to take in as many as 100 reunified families a day.Late last month, Sabraw ordered the government to reunite the thousands of children and parents who were forcibly separated at the border by the Trump administration this spring. He set a deadline of July 10 for children under 5 and gave the government until July 26 to reunite 2,551 youngsters ages 5 to 17.It was a sharp change from Friday, when the government submitted a plan for “truncated” vetting that excluded DNA testing and other procedures used for children under 5. The government official said the abbreviated vetting was necessary to meet the court-imposed deadline but put children at significant risk.
Sabraw said late Friday that he was having second thoughts about his belief that the government was acting in good faith. In a hastily arranged conference call, he told administration officials that its plan misrepresented his instructions and showed “a very grudging reluctance to do things.”The allegations came amid a long-running effort by attorneys to have a court-appointed monitor oversee the US government’s compliance with a decades-old settlement governing the treatment of immigrant children caught on the border.Attorneys interviewed immigrant parents and children in June and July about their experiences in Border Patrol facilities, family detention and a youth shelter. They described much of the testimony as “shocking and atrocious.”Families described meals of frozen sandwiches and spoiled food, overflowing toilets and guards yelling at them and kicking them while they slept. Children said they were hungry and scared when their parents were taken away.Families described meals of frozen sandwiches and spoiled food, overflowing toilets and guards yelling at them and kicking them while they slept.
