Trump administration weighs new family-separation effort at border
The White House is actively considering plans that could again separate parents and children at the U.S.-Mexico border, hoping to reverse soaring numbers of families attempting to cross illegally into the United States,
One option under consideration is for the government to detain asylum-seeking families together for up to 20 days, then give parents a choice —
stay in family detention with their child for months or years as their immigration case proceeds, or
allow children to be taken to a government shelter so other relatives or guardians can seek custody.
they feel compelled to do something, and officials say senior White House adviser Stephen Miller is advocating for tougher measures because he believes the springtime separations worked as an effective deterrent to illegal crossings.
At least 2,500 children were taken from their parents over a period of six weeks.
Crossings by families declined slightly in May, June and July before surging again in August.
September numbers are expected to be even higher.
Miller and others are determined to act
Any effort to expand family detentions and resume separations would face multiple logistical and legal hurdles.
U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw, who ordered the government to reunite separated families in June, sanctioned the binary choice approach in one of his rulings.
“practical and legal barriers” remain to using that approach in the future,
noting that Sabraw also held that a “government practice of family separation without a determination that the parent was unfit or presented a danger to the child” would likely violate due process.
The report said releasing families together in the United States is “the only clearly viable option under current law.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local...=.dc4bc510e944


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