WASHINGTON, April 28, 2022 (AFP) – More than 200 migrant children who were separated from their families during the administration of former US President Donald Trump have been reunited with their families, security secretary Alejandro Majorcas said on Thursday.
“We have brought together more than 200 children who have been separated from their parents so far and it is estimated that there are about 1,000 more children who are still separated.”
In a statement to the House Judiciary Committee, Majorcas added that the Special Families Reunification Detachment “has contacted more than 500 parents and about 400 children are currently in the process of reunification.”
The Department of Homeland Security continues to engage with NGOs to contact families, “but one of the biggest hurdles we face […] “To overcome the distrust planted by the previous administration with its cruel policies, and many still fear the trauma they have suffered,” he said.
During Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy from 2017 to January 2021, thousands of children were separated from their families to stem the massive influx of immigrants, most of them from Central America, but many were eventually reunited with relatives, still still in the Republic. .
When Joe Biden came to the White House, he promised a more “humane” immigration policy and formed a group to bring children separated from their families together.
“We allow them to meet here in the United States and offer them humanitarian permission to have some stability over a three-year period, which is renewable depending on the circumstances of each case,” said Majorkas, who attended the meeting. to various House committees this week to talk about their department’s budget for the next fiscal year.
At today’s hearing, the secretary talked about a conversation she had with a mother. “It was incredibly painful to hear a mother talk about how there is a distance between her teenage daughter who, despite being physically reunited, is still experiencing separation trauma,” she told lawmakers.
Biden supports reparations to migrant families who have left, but his government has dropped talks with lawyers who are suing on behalf of some of these families.
Claiming compensation for psychological damage, the plaintiffs announced that they would continue with the lawsuits.
In speeches to commissions this week, Majorca insisted that the solution to the immigration crisis on the Mexican border lies in addressing the causes of immigration and legislation.
“We have to fix our broken immigration system and […] it’s bankrupt in many ways,” he said on Thursday.
When he arrived at the White House, Biden proposed a way for 11 million irregular immigrants to obtain US citizenship, but the bill never came to a vote.
source: Noticias
