Children separated from their parents, some as young as 1 year old, are appearing in U.S. immigration court. This comes as the Trump administration appears set to fail in plans to reunite even half of children under 5 with their families before Tuesday's court-ordered deadline.
On Friday, a 1-year-old Honduran boy named Johan was forced to wait over an hour to see an immigration judge in Phoenix, the Associated Press reported.
The infant is one of hundreds of children who have yet to be reunited with their parents, with many separated from their families under the Trump administration's recently rescinded "zero tolerance" family separation policy.
With Tuesday's court-ordered deadline for the Trump administration to reunify children under 5 with their parents just hours away, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has said the government is likely to fail to meet its target.
The ACLU, which launched the lawsuit that saw the Trump administration ordered to reunite all children separated from their families under its "zero tolerance" policy, said the administration looks set to fail to reunite even half of children under 5 with their parents.
The civil liberties organization said the government had provided it with a list of 102 children under 5 who would need to be reunited with their parents in time for the deadline. As of Sunday evening, however, the ACLU said the government was on track to reunite less than half of those with their families.
"It's extremely disappointing that the Trump administration looks like it will fail to reunite even half the children under 5 with their parents," Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a statement sent to Newsweek.
"These kids have already suffered so much because of this policy, and every extra day apart just adds to that pain," he added.
In a last-ditch effort to secure more time, the government submitted a filing on Friday suggesting that it would need more days, admitting that the administration is struggling to find parents they have already deported.
Department of Justice lawyers asked that the judge either extend the reunification deadline or do away with the deadlines altogether, meaning the government would no longer be expected to reunite families under any given timeline, NBC News reported.
So far, the court has yet to change the reunification deadlines, which are set for July 10 for children under 5 and July 26 as the deadline for all children separated from their parents.
All parties are expected to be back in court on Monday at 10 a.m. PDT (1 p.m. EDT) in San Diego, where next steps will be discussed, the ACLU said.
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Chantal Da Silva is Chief Correspondent at Newsweek, with a focus on immigration and human rights. She is a Canadian-British journalist whose work ... Read more
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