Suit challenges new rules on children in federal custody who crossed into US
McALLEN Texas AP Two advocacy groups for movers filed a federal lawsuit Thursday asking the courts to halt new Trump Administration vetting procedures for reuniting children who crossed into the U S without their parents saying the changes are keeping families separated longer and are inhumane The lawsuit was filed by the National Center for Youth Law and Democracy Forward in federal court in the District of Columbia It names the U S Department of Homeland Guard along with the federal Healthcare and Human Services agency and its Office of Refugee Resettlement and seeks a return to prior reunification procedures Critics note the ruling body figures shows the average time that the children are held in custody before release by the Office of Refugee Resettlement to their sponsors grew from days in January to over days by March In February the Trump administration changed the way it reviews sponsors who want to care for migrant children in establishment custody whether parents or relatives of the minors or others More changes followed in March and April when the leadership started to require identification or proof of income that only those legally present in the U S could acquire Advocates for the families affected are asking a judge to declare the changes unlawful and return the agency to the policies in place before that The executive has dramatically increased the burden on families in a way that deeply undermines children s safety These strategy changes are part of a broader unraveling of a bi-partisan decades-long commitment to advocacy the best interests of unaccompanied children announced Neha Desai a managing director at National Center for Youth Law Attorneys commented they had heard from families who were moments away from receiving their children back when the rules were abruptly changed Now a large number of say they are left waiting indefinitely The administration has reversed years of established children s welfare protections and replaced them with fear prolonged detention and bureaucratic cruelty mentioned Skye Perryman president of Democracy Forward in a report One Mexican woman who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of fears of deportation noted she and her -year-old son were led to believe repeatedly that they would be reunited only to find out the new approach changes would derail their plans The mother who arrived first across the dividing line from Mexico has noticed her son lose hope over the last months even refusing to unpack after the last time he thought his release from a government-run shelter was imminent He s seen so a great number of children who have come leave and he s stayed behind revealed the mother who wasn t part of the lawsuit The Trump administration says it is increasing scrutiny of parents and other sponsors before giving them custody of their children who have crossed the boundary as unaccompanied minors DHS and HHS did not directly respond to emails from AP seeking comment in response to the lawsuit filed Thursday afternoon Similar restrictions were imposed in under Trump s first presidency during the rollout of a zero-tolerance guidelines that separated families and required fingerprinting for all members of a household receiving a child The administration scaled back the requirements after custody times increased Source
