More than 200 immigrant children, separated from their parents during the days of former Republican President Donald Trump in power, have been reunited with their families, the Homeland Security Secretary announced on Thursday.
“So far, we have reunited more than 200 children with their parents and we estimate that about 1,000 children remain separated” from their families, said Alejandro Mallorcas, who spoke during a hearing in the House of Representatives.
The American authorities have been able to contact 500 parents and about 400 children are in the process of reunification with their own, the minister clarified.
During Mr. Trump’s presidency, under the so-called “zero tolerance” policy on illegal immigration, which began in 2018, at least 4,000 minors were separated from their families at the US-Mexico border, according to ministry figures. Homeland Security. According to US justice documents, however, their number was even higher, reaching 5,500.
Even before taking office in January 2021, Democratic President Joe Biden promised to pursue a more “humane” policy on illegal immigration. Among other things, he set up a working group to reunite children and parents who were separated at the border.
“We will allow them to reunite here in the US and give them a humanitarian (residence) permit so that they can have some stability for a period of three years, renewable on a case-by-case basis,” Mallorcas said.
Joe Biden has said he is in favor of granting monetary compensation to immigrant families separated at the border, but his government abandoned negotiations with lawyers representing them in December 2021, but did not rule out a possible future.
The applicants, who want to be compensated for the mental trauma caused by their separation, have announced that they will go to court.
Alejandro Mallorca also spoke in detail Wednesday about a plan to tackle migratory flows: it envisions increasing the number of border guards and other public officials at the border, targeting traffickers, speeding up procedures, providing aid to aid organizations.
The implementation of the plan, however, “will take time, and we need the help of Congress, states and local elected, non-governmental organizations,” he said.
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