The Daunting Reunification Task Continues as the Biden Administration Reunites 400 Children Trump Separated From Their Families
The mess immigration was before was only exacerbated under "the former guy," but at least Biden is attempting to do the right thing, which often involves doing what is most difficult.
On his first day in office, President Biden sent Congress a bill creating for undocumented individuals a pathway to citizenship, signed a memorandum directing the Homeland Security secretary to protect the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, and an executive order repealing “the former guy,” Donald Trump’s, Muslim ban.
A month later, Biden ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to review Trump’s Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), commonly known as the “Remain in Mexico” policy, and issued an executive order to create a task force for the purpose of reunifying families separated at the US-Mexico border under the Trump administration’s 2018 “zero tolerance” policy.
Today, the Biden administration has successfully reunited almost 400 children torn away from more than 5,000 families, on whom the Trump administration kept no records.
Family Reunification Task Force executive director Michelle Brané explained that in the majority of the cases in which parents were separated from their children, the parents were deported, leaving their children in the U.S.
According to a recent task force report:
“More than 5,000 families were separated under Trump’s 2018 ‘zero tolerance’ policy and a 2017 pilot program and advocates estimate over 1,000 remain separated. Because the Trump administration did not keep records of which children were separated and where they were sent, the task force and lawyers working on behalf of separated families have had a difficult time identifying families to offer them the chance of reunification.”
Reunited parents are now provided the opportunity of paid travel to the U.S. with other dependent family members to live and work legally for three years.
Brané said due to many families having suffered from significant mental health trauma, the task force is providing services for families both before and after reunification.
However, 168 known children’s parents the previous administration ripped away still have not been located.
In a class action lawsuit, American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) attorney Lee Gelernt stated:
“We are thrilled for the hundreds of children who will finally be with their parents after all these years, but we are not even halfway through reuniting all the families that remain separated by the Trump administration.
“And indeed, we still haven’t located nearly 200 families. I think the Biden administration would agree that there’s a lot of work yet to be done.”
Indeed.
The Biden administration came under justifiable fire last year when a bill with House Democrats to grant a pathway to citizenship to 11 million undocumented immigrants was beset with cynicism after multiple news outlets reported the White House reopened the Trump-era Carrizo Springs, Texas detention site for migrant children.
We still do not prosecute white employers for hiring undocumented immigrants enticed toward better prospects north of the border fleeing gang violence and political strife we helped create through decades of imperialist policies.
Yet even though we should not place all the immigration woes at Biden’s feet, neither should we give him a pass.
The Trump administration intentionally created a situation in which it would be virtually impossible to reunite these families.
The Biden administration has not given up on the daunting task of trying to do so.
The mess immigration was before was only exacerbated under “the former guy,” but at least Biden is attempting to do the right thing, which often involves doing what is most difficult.