{"slug":"first-term-family-separation-court-order-violation","title":"Family Separation Continuation: Violating Federal Court Orders to Reunify Families","date":"2018-06-20","lastUpdated":"2021-01-20","description":"After the Zero Tolerance policy's family separation component was officially ended by executive order in June 2018 following a federal court injunction in Ms. L. v. ICE, the Trump administration repeatedly missed court-ordered deadlines to reunite separated children with their parents, failed to track thousands of cases, and was held in contempt for continuing separations. By the end of Trump's first term, the parents of 628 children remained unlocated — some had been deported without their children.","summary":"A federal judge in the ACLU's Ms. L. v. ICE case ordered the government to reunify all separated families within 30 days. The administration missed the deadline, admitted it lacked a tracking system, and was repeatedly held in contempt. Parents were deported without their children; children were 'lost' in the system; in some cases children remained in U.S. custody for years after their parents had been removed to their home countries. The ACLU's family tracking project located hundreds of deported parents who didn't know where their children were.","category":"deportation-to-torture","severity":"extreme","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.aclu.org/cases/ms-l-v-ice","title":"Ms. L. v. ICE — Case Documents","publisher":"ACLU"},{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/21/us/migrant-children-parents.html","title":"545 Migrant Children Still Separated From Their Parents, ACLU Says","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/trump-family-separation-rule/2018/10/12/cddad6e8-cde3-11e8-a3e6-44daa3d35ede_story.html","title":"Government admits it lacks a system to reunify separated families","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-united-states-immigration-courts-family-separation-4428b3d9fb7f0c63a7ac4e34d27e4a4e","title":"Biden task force finds 628 children's parents still not located","publisher":"The Associated Press"},{"url":"https://oversight.house.gov/news/press-releases/new-report-reveals-trump-administration-separated-more-than-5500-children","title":"Report: Trump Administration Separated More Than 5,500 Children","publisher":"House Committee on Oversight and Reform"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["family-separation","children","deportation","court-order-violation","first-term","immigration","contempt-of-court"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2018-06-20","title":"Trump executive order ends official Zero Tolerance separation","summary":"Facing bipartisan political backlash and a growing crisis, Trump signs an executive order purportedly ending family separation. The order does not mandate reunification of already-separated families."},{"date":"2018-06-26","title":"Federal court orders reunification","summary":"Judge Dana Sabraw of the Southern District of California issues an injunction ordering the government to stop all family separations and reunify separated children — children under 5 within 30 days, all others within 45 days. The ACLU's lawsuit (Ms. L. v. ICE) is the vehicle."},{"date":"2018-07-26","title":"Government misses reunification deadline — 711 children remain separated","summary":"The 45-day deadline passes with 711 children still separated. The government informs the court it has successfully reunified 1,442 children but asks to exclude hundreds of cases it says are ineligible for various reasons. The court rejects many of the exclusions."},{"date":"2018-10-01","title":"Government admits no tracking system","summary":"In court filings, government lawyers confirm what advocates had suspected: there is no comprehensive database linking separated children to their parents. The information is spread across multiple agencies (HHS/ORR, DHS/ICE, CBP) with no unified tracking."},{"date":"2019-01-01","title":"IG: More separations than reported; separations continued","summary":"The DHS Inspector General confirms that family separations under various policies continued after the official end of Zero Tolerance. The IG cannot determine the total number of children affected because of the tracking failures."},{"date":"2020-10-21","title":"545 children's parents still unlocated","summary":"The ACLU informs the court that the parents of 545 separated children remain unlocated; many were believed to have been deported to their home countries. The news generates widespread coverage in the final weeks of the 2020 election."},{"date":"2021-02-02","title":"Biden creates family reunification task force","summary":"One of Biden's first executive orders creates a task force to reunify families separated under Trump. The task force ultimately reports that the parents of 628 children had still not been located as of October 2021."}],"location":{"name":"U.S.-Mexico border; immigration detention facilities nationwide","lat":28,"lng":-100},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"judicial-finding","warCrimeClassification":"confirmed","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"Convention on the Rights of the Child","article":"Articles 3, 9","provision":"Best interests of the child must be a primary consideration; children shall not be separated from parents against their will except when necessary for the child's best interests — separation as a deterrent violates this standard"},{"statute":"Convention Against Torture","article":"Article 16","provision":"Prohibition on cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment — forcible family separation and prolonged separation constitutes cruel and degrading treatment of both children and parents"},{"statute":"Geneva Convention IV","article":"Article 27","provision":"Family unity — protected persons must be permitted to maintain contact with their families"}],"iccRelevance":true,"civilianCasualties":0,"victims":"628+ children whose parents remained unlocated at the end of Trump's first term; thousands of children who experienced traumatic separation; parents deported without their children","structuredVictims":[{"group":"Children separated from parents by Zero Tolerance and subsequent separations","status":"Thousands separated; 628 parents still unlocated at close of first term"}],"structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President of the United States","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Kirstjen Nielsen","role":"Secretary of Homeland Security","institution":"DHS"},{"name":"Stephen Miller","role":"Senior Advisor; architect of family separation policy","institution":"White House"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2021-01-20","summary":"Updated with Biden task force findings on remaining unlocated parents."}]}}