US Begins Reuniting Some Families Separated At Mexico Border

Speaker 1: 00:00 Four families separated at the Mexico border during Donald Trump's presidency will be reunited in the U S this week, Homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas calls this just the beginning of a broader effort, given that there are still hundreds, more families to reunite. Joining me is legal learned deputy director of ACL use immigrants rights project. He's been challenging the separation policy in courts since 2018. We welcome. Speaker 2: 00:27 Thanks for having me. So Speaker 1: 00:28 For families that were separated at the Mexico border during Trump's presidency will be reunited. What can you tell us about these families? Speaker 2: 00:36 What I can say is that they're all desperate to see their children as are so many other families who have been separated. You know, these were some of the first families that were separated and have not seen their kids for years, but the joy on their faces when they see their kids, I've been at those reunifications and I will be at another one this week is just unimaginable. We are happy. The process is starting. And I think president Biden and secretary Mary orcas are gonna put the full weight of the U S government behind this. I am in negotiations now with Biden ministration for a comprehensive settlement. These four families are part of a larger group. 5,500 children were ultimately separated by the Trump administration. A thousand will remain separated. And what I want to stress is that reunification is only one piece of this. What we need beyond reunification is permanent legal status for all the families. We need social services to get them back on their feet, including trauma care, we need compensation. So this is going to be a long process and we are in it for the long haul as we have been since they saw you filed this lawsuit in 2018, Speaker 1: 01:53 Stand. Now once reunited will these families who have been separated, be able to seek asylum. I mean, what about other families moving forward as well? Speaker 2: 02:02 Yeah, that's a, that's a very good question. They will absolutely be allowed to seek some form of legal, permanent status, whether it's asylum or some other process that is really the touchstone of this whole thing. The families need to get back to see their children. They are going to have immediate what's called parole so that they're not in danger of being removed. They're going to get social services, but ultimately the Biden administration will not have succeeded. If it doesn't provide a pathway to legal, permanent status, whether that's replying for asylum or some other means we can not turn around and kick these families out after what the United States government, the Trump administration deliberately did to these families. Speaker 1: 02:44 I touched on this earlier, but how long have these families been separated and how long have children been held in detention Speaker 2: 02:51 Centers? So some families were separated, including some of these all the way back to 2017 lick children were in sometimes for months, but then they were given to sponsors. Speaker 1: 03:04 What's the biggest challenge right now to bringing these families back together. Speaker 2: 03:08 Yeah, I think there are two. One is that we still haven't found the parents of 455 children. We need to find those families as soon as possible. The other, I think is relocating some of the families we had found years ago, but may have gone off the map. And then finally, there's just, you know, beyond that, there's just going to be the sheer logistics. The government is going to want biometrics from some family members. There's getting families from remote villages in Guatemala or other places to the airport, to the embassies. There's just a lot of logistics around it. Speaker 1: 03:42 What do you think the Trump administration's motive was in, uh, enforcing this immigration policy? Speaker 2: 03:50 I think we now know pretty clearly that the Trump administration believed well, if we just do something so evil, if we take children away, even babies, they took even babies, six months old, the way these parents will give up their asylum claims and other parents will not come and seek asylum. You know? And it's the worst thing I have ever seen in my 30 years doing this work. You know, I think the American Academy of pediatrics was right to just call it straight out, child abuse. Speaker 1: 04:17 Why do you think the Trump administration was so adamant about deterring immigration from South of the border? Speaker 2: 04:24 I think the Trump administration viewed it as a political win. I think many of the policies, maybe almost all of them that the Trump administration enacted in the immigration area were racist. I don't think we would have ever thought about taking children away. If these were white European families coming. I think the Trump administration ultimately miscalculated and thought, well, they had de-humanize the central American population to such an extent that the American people would not would fold against this policy. And if there's any silver lining in this whole saga, it's that? Not just Democrats and liberals, but Republicans, conservatives, everyone was repulsed by what the Trump administration did take the children away. And there was such a backlash. I think we need to all remember that when we see something like this, so evil, we have to speak out and push back. We need to document it and get to the bottom of every last thing that happened. So we have an historical record. So it never happens again. Speaker 1: 05:29 There are children who were forced to live without their parents during their most formative years, the separation policy impacted a generation of kids. What do you think the consequence of that policy will be for years to come? Speaker 2: 05:43 I am very worried about that. I hope that with enough treatment, the children can lead healthy, productive lives. But I am told by medical professionals that many of the children may ultimately suffer irreparable damage and lasting trauma. Um, we may have created a whole generation of children. We're just not going to be able to lead healthy, productive lives. When I went to a family's house, one of the first families we got reunified, the mother told us the four year old boy just keeps asking, are they going to come and take me away again at middle of the night, you know, that kind of feeling of vulnerability that the world is never going to be safe. Again, may last forever with these children. And so that, you know, right now we can't even calculate how much damage we've done. We just need to move forward and try and get as families as much help as possible to minimize as much as possible. What's been, what's been done to them. Speaker 1: 06:46 I've been speaking with legal learned deputy director of ACL use immigration rights project Lee. Thank you very much for joining us. Speaker 2: 06:54 Thank you for having me.