Today, the Trump administration failed to meet yet another court-ordered reunification deadline today to reunite more than 1,500 children who were separated from their parents. DNC Chair Tom Perez released the following statement:
“The unconscionable cruelty continues. Once again, the Trump administration has defied a court order and failed to reunite children with their parents after heartlessly tearing them apart. When history is written, Donald Trump’s treatment of immigrant families will be remembered as one of our nation’s darkest hours.
“All children must be reunited with their parents immediately. Democrats believe that diversity and compassion are our nation’s greatest strengths. We believe in fixing our immigration system, not uprooting lives and shattering families. If Republicans truly cared about these families and American values, they would help Democrats end Trump’s humanitarian crisis by passing a bipartisan solution that actually protects children.”
Here are the latest stories of Trump’s inhumane family separation crisis:
Mothers are pleading in court to have their children returned to them.
NBC News: “NBC News has obtained exclusive audio recordings of two mothers in a Texas immigration detention center telling a judge they want to be reunited with their children. ‘What I want, before anything, is to have my daughter with me,’ one woman said through tears. ‘I just want my daughter with me.’”
Parents who were separated from their children were unaware and even coerced into waiving their rights to be reunified with their kids.
BuzzFeed News: “Immigrant parents who were separated from their children at the border told attorneys they were misinformed, coerced, or tricked into waiving their rights to be reunified with their kids.”
The Trump administration neglected to give separated parents a choice before they deported them without their children.
Politico: “Homeland Security officials may have neglected to give a choice to as many as three-quarters of all migrant parents removed from the United States about leaving their children behind, contradicting repeated public assurances from Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.”
Nearly 1,000 parents won’t be reunited with their children by today’s court-ordered deadline on the Trump administration.
CNN: “After months of outcry over splitting up migrant families at the border, the US government has until 6 p.m. ET today to reunite all eligible families that it separated. But we already know as many as 914 parents won’t be reunited with their children by Thursday.”