Officials say they’re working to comply and meet deadlines the court set. But they’ve been tight-lipped about many details.
Here are some of the key unanswered questions, and the latest we’ve learned as they have come up in court:
US District Judge Dana Sabraw laid out a series of deadlines in a ruling last week. By Friday, officials must make sure every separated parent has a way to contact their child. By July 10, children younger than 5 must be reunited with their parents. And by July 26, all children should be reunited with their parents.
In a court filing this week, the government outlined a series of steps it’s taking to comply with the court order: including DNA testing, increased staffing and expediting existing processes.
Lawyers from the ACLU have been adamant that the court gave officials plenty of time — and that there’s no reason to give the government extra time to clean up a mess it made.
On a call with reporters Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar called the deadlines “extreme” but said officials would comply.
How many reunions have occurred?
But federal agencies have repeatedly declined to respond to questions since the court ruling about how many families have been reunited.
Exactly how many kids from separated families are in custody?
What’s the holdup in getting a precise tally?
Of the fewer than 3,000 children, Azar said about 100 were younger than 5.
Will the government reunite kids with parents who have already been deported?
In a court filing Friday, the government asked the court for clarity about whether officials actually have to do this, noting that the judge’s ruling did not specify whether deported parents should be included. If that is required, the filing said, officials would need more time “given the complexities involved in locating individuals who have been removed, determining whether they wish to be reunified with their child, and facilitating such a reunification outside of the United States.”
Sabraw said in court that deported parents were included in his order.
It’s unclear what steps the government will take to do this.
How many parents have been deported without their kids?
Officials haven’t disclosed how many parents from separated families were deported. But in court on Friday, Fabian revealed details about one subset: 19 parents of children younger than 5 were deported, she said.
Asked Thursday about what would happen in such cases, Azar said, “If any parent has been deported … without their child, that likely would be a scenario where the parent had actually asked that the child remain.”
Immigrant advocacy groups say they’re concerned that some parents may have been coerced or may have signed documents they didn’t understand.
CNN’s Tammy Kupperman and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
Source : CNN