Separation of migrant families — one of the most controversial immigration policies of the Trump administration — is happening again in San Diego County, according to several advocacy groups.
Since mid-September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has separated more than 1,000 migrant families processed at the San Diego-Tijuana border, according to a complaint the migrant advocacy organizations filed this week with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The advocates say they started noticing the family separations in September. That’s when CBP agents began releasing thousands of migrants and asylum seekers in San Diego after processing.
“Folks were coming to us really distraught, having been released without the people that they traveled across the border with,” said Meghan Zavala, data and policy analyst with Al Otro Lado, one of the organizations filing the complaint.
More than one third of the separations documented by advocates include legally married spouses. Others include young adults, usually between 18 and 20 years old, traveling with parents; minor children traveling with their adult siblings; or aunts and uncles traveling with nieces and nephews.
“One of the asks that we have is for the Department of Homeland Security to expand its definition of what it considers a family group,” Zavala said.
Jewish Family Services, the ACLU of San Diego and Imperial Counties, and the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA joined Al Otro Lado Thursday in filing the complaint with the DHS Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties.
That office investigates complaints, produces reports, and makes recommendations to federal agencies. However, those recommendations are not binding, according to Al Otro Lado.
Family separations happen throughout multiple points in the CBP processing pipeline, advocates said. Al Orto Lado said it documented 1,081 separations since Sept. 13.
After crossing the border, migrants are kept in open-air camps out in Jacumba and in between the two border walls in San Ysidro. At these camps, men are separated from women and children. Then taken into custody at different times, advocates said.
“18-year-old male children will be sent to one section and the rest of the family to another,” said Erika Pinheiro, executive director of Al Otro Lado. “The children are processed out at different times and sometimes the children are sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.”
Once migrants are in CBP custody, agents will release different family members into San Diego at different times, according to the advocates.
“There will be a family group of four and one person is released one day, then two days later, the next person,” Zavala said.
Oftentimes, family members will have no way to contact their relatives, Zavala added.
The complaint also criticizes CBP’s lack of help in reuniting families. For example, ICE has a detainee locator tool to help lawyers and families identify missing people, but CBP does not have a similar tool.
CBP did not respond to a KPBS request for comment about the complaint.
Biden faces criticism
Family separations was one of the most controversial parts of former President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy.
Under that policy, the federal government separated parents who crossed the border illegally with their children. The parents were referred to prosecution while the children were placed under the custody of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department (HHS).
More than 4,000 children were separated from their families, according to a DHS report released in September. The report states 1,100 children still have not been reunified.
During the 2020 presidential campaign, Joe Biden promised to eliminate many of the Trump-era immigration policies including family separation.
One month into his first term, President Biden rescinded the “zero tolerance” policy calling that type of family separation, “inconsistent with our principles.”
To be clear, the separations happening now are different in nature to those during the Trump years and do not represent a continuation of that policy. However, advocates say the impact is similar.
“There’s definitely a psychological toll,” Zavala said.
Throughout his term, Biden has faced criticism from both sides of the immigration debate. Conservatives say he’s too soft on border security while immigrant advocates say he’s not done enough to roll back Trump-era immigration policies.
For example, despite a promise to not build “another foot” of the border wall, the administration is currently doing just that along Friendship Park in San Diego.
The administration also initially continued and expanded Trump’s Remain-in-Mexico policy, which forced asylum seekers to live in Mexico while their case was adjudicated. Once in Mexico, many vulnerable migrants were beaten, robbed, and sexually assaulted.
