Asylum seekers approach the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso in April 2022. Jose Luis Gonzalez (Portal)
The Justice Department announced Monday a legal settlement with migrant families separated at the border during the Donald Trump administration. The pact, which still needs to be approved by a San Diego district court, provides benefits to those who were victims of one of the former president’s most extreme measures and bars the administration from implementing similar measures in the next eight years. If passed, the resolution would temporarily protect immigrants from “zero tolerance” policies, particularly when Trump returns to the White House in January 2025 after winning next year’s election.
The agreement benefits between 4,500 and 5,000 minors and their parents who were separated under policies developed by Stephen Miller, Trump’s radical border adviser. This group may receive work permits for three and five years, housing assistance for one year, legal assistance and limited medical care, including psychological therapies, to reverse the trauma caused by the situation. Under the agreement, the government is required to continue identifying separated families, funding their reunification in the United States and beginning the processes to consider them asylum. The decision does not provide for payments to the families or other financial amounts to repair the damage.
The Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) began the process in July 2019, which concludes today. The organization has stated that one of the key parts of the pact is that the government will not implement similar measures in the future. “This agreement closes the dark chapter of the Trump administration, but the harm done to these families, while welcome, will always be tragic and irreversible,” Anthony Romero, the ACLU’s executive director, said in a statement.
“The practice of family separation at the country’s southern border was shameful,” said Merrick Garland, Biden’s attorney general, in announcing the agreement between the parties, which was three years in the making. “This pact will facilitate family reunification and provide them with essential recovery services,” the official added in a statement.
Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy sparked international controversy because it was inhumane. The US authorities secretly began implementing it in 2018. This resulted in adult immigrants being detained and processed into detention centers where they awaited trial. Because their children could not be detained, immigration authorities released them into the custody of the federal government or a family. In May of that year, the government admitted that it had lost track of around 1,500 undocumented minors. A district court issued a preliminary injunction in June 2018 to stop the “zero tolerance” policy. Facing the criticism, Trump issued an executive order to end it. However, the immigrant families remained separated.
The ACLU’s first lawsuit alleged that about 900 minors were separated from their parents because of the former Republican president’s policies. The number of victims of the measure increased. When President Joe Biden came to power in January 2021, he abolished the Trump policy and created a task force focused on finding and reuniting separated people. According to the Department of Homeland Security, approximately 3,881 minors were separated from their parents between 2017 and 2021.
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“We are trying to do everything in our power to ensure that the atrocities of the past are not repeated in the future. “With this agreement, we have put in place procedures to advance these efforts,” Alejandro Mayorkas, the head of Homeland Security, told the Associated Press this Monday.
74% of families were reunited. About 2,100 cases were resolved before Biden became president. The working group set up by the administration has reunited around 750 minors with their families. Another 85 are in the process of reunification. This group highlights that at least 290 minors who were victims of the “zero tolerance” policy had American citizenship.
The Biden administration initially kept open the possibility of compensating victims of the family separation policy with up to $450,000. “If you lost one of your children crossing the border because of the outrageous behavior of the previous administration, whether legal or illegal, you are entitled to compensation.” “The circumstance does not matter,” the president said in November 2021. The Initiative was criticized from several internal quarters, leading the White House to back away from its proposal. The administration was forced to try hundreds of cases individually. These were resolved today with a commitment not to repeat the measure in the future. It remains to be seen whether Trump will implement this when he returns to power.
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