While it was easy to pull them apart, it is harder to put them back together. Identifying and reuniting separated migrant families may take up to two years.
In court documents filed on April 5, the US government has acknowledged that it could take up to two years to identify thousands of children who were separated from their parents by the authorities at the southern border. The filing outlined for the first time the Trump administration’s plan for identifying which family members may have been separated by assessing thousands of records using data analysis, statistical science and manual review following the implementation of its “zero-tolerance” policy to criminally prosecute and jail all those who crossed the border illegally, even those traveling with their children which lead to a wave of separations last year.
Last month, a federal judge in San Diego expanded the number of migrant families the government may be required to reunite as part of a class-action lawsuit brought in 2018 by the American Civil Liberties Union (“ACLU”). The Office of Inspector General at the US Department of Health and Human Services said earlier this year that it had identified many more children in addition to the 2,737 that had been initially included in the suit. US district court judge Dana Sabraw had already ordered those children be reunited with their parents.
The timing of the reunifications is dependent on the efficacy of the government’s predictive statistical model, the manpower that can be dedicated to the manual review and whether follow-up meetings are required. The ACLU has accused the government of not prioritising the issue or treating the matter with the urgency it deserves.
