A federal judge will consider arguments Friday to prohibit U.S. immigration authorities from separating parents from their children at the border. A lawsuit has been filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a Congolese woman who was separated from her 7-year-old daughter for five months after claiming asylum in California.
The mother, identified in court documents as Mrs. L, claimed asylum at San Diego's San Ysidro border crossing on Nov. 1, 2017, and four days later she was separated from her daughter. The girl, then 6, was sent to a Chicago shelter overseen by the U.S. Health and Human Services Department's Office of Refugee Resettlement, while the mother was held at a San Diego immigration detention facility until March 6.
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The administration says the Congolese woman had no documents and was unable to prove she was the girl's mother when she claimed asylum. U.S. authorities confirmed through DNA testing on March 12 that the woman was the girl's mother and the two were reunited.
The case seeks to halt family separation while the lawsuit proceeds through federal court.
The Women's Refugee Commission has identified 429 cases of parents being separated from their children, according to an affidavit filed by Michelle Brane, director of the group's migrant rights and justice program.
Health and Human Services has identified about 700 cases.
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According to The New York Times, which first reported the figure last month, more than 100 were younger than 4 years old.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen testified in Congress last week that the administration had no policy to separate parents from their children as a punitive or deterrent measure but that it happens when there is doubt about whether an adult may be a parent or when the child might be in danger.
