Monday, October 1 marks 67 days since a federal judge’s migrant family reunification deadline, yet 136 children continue to remain separated from parents, according to the most recent numbers from the Trump administration. Of those kids, three are age 5 or under. The parents of 96 kids have already been deported. Of those children, two are age 5 or under.
This, much like the record number of migrant children overall jailed by the U.S., is a crisis of the administration’s own making. Trump officials chose to make family separation at the border official policy, contrary to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Sec. Kirstjen Nielsen’s numerous lies. There was no plan on how to piece these broken families back together, until the administration was forced to by the courts. Now officials are struggling to reunite the remaining kids, making the very real possibility that some may never see their parents again a real possibility.
Judge Dana Sabraw—apparently in the spirit of cooperation between the administration and initially plaintiffs who sued to reunite families—has cut Trump officials plenty of slack, but that doesn’t mean we have to. This November, we can sweep in a new Congress that will finally hold the perpetrators of this barbaric, humanitarian disaster—like Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Alex Azar and noted liar Kirstjen Nielsen—accountable. Family separation remains a crisis. Do not forget the children.
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