VOA慢速英语--US: Half of Small Children, Migrant Families Reunited

 

The United States says all eligible¹ young children separated from their families have been reunited with their parents. The families were separated as a result of the country’s “zero-tolerance²” immigration policy.

As of Thursday morning, 57 children under the age of five had been reunited with their parents, the Trump³ administration said in a statement.

The administration said another 46 children under the age of five remain separated from their families because of safety concerns and other issues.

Between May and June of this year, about 2,300 children were separated from their families at the United States’ border with Mexico. The zero-tolerance policy required adults to be sent to the custody⁴ of the U.S. Marshals Service. Children traveling with them were sent to centers run by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The families are mostly from Central American countries. They crossed through Mexico to reach the U.S. border.

On June 20, Trump signed an executive order to end the practice. The order came after many news reports showed emotional images of young children at the border crying for their parents.

The Trump administration was under a federal court order to reunite all of the more than 100 children under the age of five with their separated families. The order came as a result of a lawsuit⁵ filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU.

ACLU lawyers said Thursday, “If in fact 57 children have been reunited because of the lawsuit, we could not be more happy for those families. But make no mistake about it: the government missed the deadline even for these 57 children."

The court-ordered deadline was July 10. Federal officials had difficulty trying to meet the tight, two-week deadline set by the federal judge.

Officials said current systems were not set up to reunify parents with their children. They were set up to deal with children who cross the border illegally without family.

Government officials say 46 of the young children were not eligible to be reunited with their parents. They said some of their parents had already been deported⁷. Nine parents were being kept for other offenses⁸. One parent could not be found. In other cases, officials said the adults had criminal histories, including child cruelty and human smuggling⁹.

The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has been charged with care for the children. The Homeland Security Department oversees¹⁰ detention¹¹ of adult immigrants. And the Justice Department manages the immigration courts.

The Trump administration faces a second deadline on July 26. They are to reunite more than 2,000 older children with their families.

I'm Jonathan Evans.

Words in This Story

eligible - adj. able to be chosen for something

tolerance - n. willingness to accept

custody - n. the state of being kept in a proson or jail

deport⁶ - v. to force a person to leave the country

smuggle¹² - v. to move (someone or something) from one country into another illegally and secretly

1 eligible   

adj.有条件被选中的；(尤指婚姻等)合适(意)的

参考例句：

• He is an eligible young man.他是一个合格的年轻人。
• Helen married an eligible bachelor.海伦嫁给了一个中意的单身汉。

2 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

3 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

4 custody   

n.监护，照看，羁押，拘留

参考例句：

• He spent a week in custody on remand awaiting sentence.等候判决期间他被还押候审一个星期。
• He was taken into custody immediately after the robbery.抢劫案发生后，他立即被押了起来。

5 lawsuit   

n.诉讼，控诉

参考例句：

• They threatened him with a lawsuit.他们以诉讼威逼他。
• He was perpetually involving himself in this long lawsuit.他使自己无休止地卷入这场长时间的诉讼。

6 deport   

vt.驱逐出境

参考例句：

• We deport aliens who slip across our borders.我们把偷渡入境的外国人驱逐出境。
• More than 240 England football fans are being deported from Italy following riots last night.昨晚的骚乱发生后有240多名英格兰球迷被驱逐出意大利。

7 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 offenses   

n.进攻( offense的名词复数 )；（球队的）前锋；进攻方法；攻势

参考例句：

• It's wrong of you to take the child to task for such trifling offenses. 因这类小毛病责备那孩子是你的不对。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Thus, Congress cannot remove an executive official except for impeachable offenses. 因此，除非有可弹劾的行为，否则国会不能罢免行政官员。 来自英汉非文学 - 行政法

9 smuggling   

n.走私

参考例句：

• Some claimed that the docker's union fronted for the smuggling ring.某些人声称码头工人工会是走私集团的掩护所。
• The evidence pointed to the existence of an international smuggling network.证据表明很可能有一个国际走私网络存在。

10 oversees   

v.监督，监视( oversee的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• She oversees both the research and the manufacturing departments. 她既监督研究部门又监督生产部门。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Department of Education oversees the federal programs dealing with education. 教育部监管处理教育的联邦程序。 来自互联网

11 detention   

n.滞留，停留；拘留，扣留；(教育)留下

参考例句：

• He was kept in detention by the police.他被警察扣留了。
• He was in detention in connection with the bribery affair.他因与贿赂事件有牵连而被拘留了。

12 smuggle   

vt.私运；vi.走私

参考例句：

• Friends managed to smuggle him secretly out of the country.朋友们想方设法将他秘密送出国了。
• She has managed to smuggle out the antiques without getting caught.她成功将古董走私出境，没有被逮捕。