SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
Guatemalan immigrants deported from the United States wait for processing after arriving on a ICE deportation flight on February 9, 2017 in Guatemala City, Guatemala. (Photo: John Moore/Getty Images)
After Coercing Parents Into Agreeing to Deportation, Trump DOJ Foists Responsibility to Reunite Families on ACLU
"The Trump administration to the ACLU: We broke it. You fix it."
Aug 03, 2018
After misleading parents into waiving their right to be reunited with their children--and then deporting them--the Trump administration claimed on Thursday that if immigrant rights groups want families reunited, they should now be responsible for finding the parents who have been sent back to their home countries.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), which is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over the ongoing family separation crisis begun by the Trump administration in May, said in a court filing that the ACLU should find the parents who are now back in their home countries across Central America.
"The Trump administration chose to rip families apart as a matter of policy to punish people for seeking asylum." --ACLU
"Plaintiffs' counsel should use their considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers, and others, together with the information that defendants have provided (or will soon provide), to establish contact with possible class members in foreign countries," the DOJ wrote.
On Twitter, the ACLU responded that the group has mobilized to take every possible action to help immigrants affected by the Trump administration's immigration policies--but asserted that the fate of thousands of family members who have been separated in recent months is the responsibility of the government.
More than 460 parents have been deported without their children, and the ACLU has reportedly spoken with several of the 126 parents who left after signing so-called "voluntary departure orders"--and learned that they were coerced into agreeing to deportation.
"Based on my discussions with these fathers, it appears that none were told the implications of what they were signing or had an understanding of what they were signing," ACLU attorney Luis Cruz wrote in a court filing. "The manner in which they signed these forms was universally described as intimidating and very stressful. Each described feeling hopeless and believing that they had no alternative but to sign the form."
In another court filing in July, the ACLU convinced a federal judge to temporarily halt deportations to allow parents time to meet with attorneys, to ensure they understood their rights--in an effort to lessen the chaotic nature of the government's hasty deportations of parents.
The task the government is attempting to assign the ACLU is made all the more difficult because of the Trump administration's disregard for record-keeping while separating more than 2,500 children from their parents and then sending parents back to various Central American countries.
An estimated 120 records provided by the government to the ACLU lack addresses for the deported parents, according to Politico.
A Trump administration official told Politico late last month that records for about three quarters of the deported parents show that they did not agree to leave their children in the U.S. alone--directly contradicting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's claim that "these are parents who have made the decision not to bring the children with them."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
After misleading parents into waiving their right to be reunited with their children--and then deporting them--the Trump administration claimed on Thursday that if immigrant rights groups want families reunited, they should now be responsible for finding the parents who have been sent back to their home countries.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), which is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over the ongoing family separation crisis begun by the Trump administration in May, said in a court filing that the ACLU should find the parents who are now back in their home countries across Central America.
"The Trump administration chose to rip families apart as a matter of policy to punish people for seeking asylum." --ACLU
"Plaintiffs' counsel should use their considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers, and others, together with the information that defendants have provided (or will soon provide), to establish contact with possible class members in foreign countries," the DOJ wrote.
On Twitter, the ACLU responded that the group has mobilized to take every possible action to help immigrants affected by the Trump administration's immigration policies--but asserted that the fate of thousands of family members who have been separated in recent months is the responsibility of the government.
More than 460 parents have been deported without their children, and the ACLU has reportedly spoken with several of the 126 parents who left after signing so-called "voluntary departure orders"--and learned that they were coerced into agreeing to deportation.
"Based on my discussions with these fathers, it appears that none were told the implications of what they were signing or had an understanding of what they were signing," ACLU attorney Luis Cruz wrote in a court filing. "The manner in which they signed these forms was universally described as intimidating and very stressful. Each described feeling hopeless and believing that they had no alternative but to sign the form."
In another court filing in July, the ACLU convinced a federal judge to temporarily halt deportations to allow parents time to meet with attorneys, to ensure they understood their rights--in an effort to lessen the chaotic nature of the government's hasty deportations of parents.
The task the government is attempting to assign the ACLU is made all the more difficult because of the Trump administration's disregard for record-keeping while separating more than 2,500 children from their parents and then sending parents back to various Central American countries.
An estimated 120 records provided by the government to the ACLU lack addresses for the deported parents, according to Politico.
A Trump administration official told Politico late last month that records for about three quarters of the deported parents show that they did not agree to leave their children in the U.S. alone--directly contradicting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's claim that "these are parents who have made the decision not to bring the children with them."
After misleading parents into waiving their right to be reunited with their children--and then deporting them--the Trump administration claimed on Thursday that if immigrant rights groups want families reunited, they should now be responsible for finding the parents who have been sent back to their home countries.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), which is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over the ongoing family separation crisis begun by the Trump administration in May, said in a court filing that the ACLU should find the parents who are now back in their home countries across Central America.
"The Trump administration chose to rip families apart as a matter of policy to punish people for seeking asylum." --ACLU
"Plaintiffs' counsel should use their considerable resources and their network of law firms, NGOs, volunteers, and others, together with the information that defendants have provided (or will soon provide), to establish contact with possible class members in foreign countries," the DOJ wrote.
On Twitter, the ACLU responded that the group has mobilized to take every possible action to help immigrants affected by the Trump administration's immigration policies--but asserted that the fate of thousands of family members who have been separated in recent months is the responsibility of the government.
More than 460 parents have been deported without their children, and the ACLU has reportedly spoken with several of the 126 parents who left after signing so-called "voluntary departure orders"--and learned that they were coerced into agreeing to deportation.
"Based on my discussions with these fathers, it appears that none were told the implications of what they were signing or had an understanding of what they were signing," ACLU attorney Luis Cruz wrote in a court filing. "The manner in which they signed these forms was universally described as intimidating and very stressful. Each described feeling hopeless and believing that they had no alternative but to sign the form."
In another court filing in July, the ACLU convinced a federal judge to temporarily halt deportations to allow parents time to meet with attorneys, to ensure they understood their rights--in an effort to lessen the chaotic nature of the government's hasty deportations of parents.
The task the government is attempting to assign the ACLU is made all the more difficult because of the Trump administration's disregard for record-keeping while separating more than 2,500 children from their parents and then sending parents back to various Central American countries.
An estimated 120 records provided by the government to the ACLU lack addresses for the deported parents, according to Politico.
A Trump administration official told Politico late last month that records for about three quarters of the deported parents show that they did not agree to leave their children in the U.S. alone--directly contradicting Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen's claim that "these are parents who have made the decision not to bring the children with them."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.