US Begins Reuniting Families Separated at the US-Mexico Border

 

The United States Department of Homeland Security said Monday it is working to reunite children who were separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border in recent years.

Alejandro Mayorkas is the head of the Department of Homeland Security. He said his agency still has a lot of work to do. However, Mayorkas said: "We continue to work tirelessly to reunite many more children with their parents in the weeks and months ahead."

The department announced that the families will be reconnected this week in what Mayorkas called "the beginning" of the effort.

Two mothers, one from Honduras and one from Mexico are expected to be reunited with their children this week. Some of the children were as young as three years old when they were separated. The department did not give details about the other families.

In 2017, the administration of President Donald Trump¹ put in place a policy that brought criminal charges against people crossing the border illegally. The policy meant that adults were separated from minors² who were with them.

Since then, some children have been permitted to remain in the U.S. while their parents were sent home. Some of them were sent to live with family members in the U.S. Others stayed in shelters run by the U.S government.

In July 2017, the number of children separated from their parents was over 5,000. That number has come down.

The Trump administration ended its policy in 2018, but over the last three years it has been difficult to connect parents with their children.

The Biden administration has been under pressure from rights groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to bring the families back together as soon as possible. The ACLU brought legal action against the Trump administration at the time to stop the separations.

The reunifications expected this week are a result of the ACLU's legal action. In a legal compromise, the ACLU and the U.S. government worked to decide how many families needed to be reunited.

Michelle Brane is the director of the Biden administration's Family Reunification Task Force. She said the parents are permitted to come to the U.S. to join their children on temporary humanitarian³ grounds. However, the U.S. is still working to decide whether they will be permitted to stay for a longer period of time.

Brane said she thinks about 1,000 families are still separated.

In an executive⁴ order signed during his first day in office, Biden said he would work to reunite families "to the greatest extent possible."

While the news of the children getting back together with their families is positive, the U.S. is still struggling to deal with the flow of migrants.

Children are still coming to the U.S. alone. About 700 children are currently⁵ in Border Patrol⁶ custody⁷, but that is down from over 5,700 in late March. Once they are processed by Border Patrol officials, they are sent to centers managed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). The U.S. government added 14 new housing centers for migrants in the first part of 2021.

Last week, HHS said it is caring for over 22,000 children. Immigration officers are working to place the children with people who can take care of them.

Words in This Story

humanitarian –adj. used to describe help offered to other people

custody –n. the act of protecting or taking care of something

process –v. to deal with (something, such as an official document or request) by using a particular method or system

1 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。

2 minors   

n.未成年人( minor的名词复数 )；副修科目；小公司；[逻辑学]小前提v.[主美国英语]副修，选修，兼修( minor的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The law forbids shops to sell alcohol to minors. 法律禁止商店向未成年者出售含酒精的饮料。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He had three minors this semester. 这学期他有三门副修科目。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

4 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

5 currently   

adv.通常地，普遍地，当前

参考例句：

• Currently it is not possible to reconcile this conflicting evidence.当前还未有可能去解释这一矛盾的例证。
• Our contracts are currently under review.我们的合同正在复查。

6 patrol   

v.巡逻，巡查；n.巡逻，巡查，巡逻队

参考例句：

• They attacked two soldiers on patrol.他们袭击了两名正在巡逻的士兵。
• Policemen patrol the streets.警察在街上巡逻。

7 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。