Tag

#family-separation

The forced separation of families through immigration enforcement, deportation, or detention policies. Violates the right to family unity under the ICCPR and the Convention on the Rights of the Child, causing documented psychological harm.

4 incidents

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Family Separation Continuation: Violating Federal Court Orders to Reunify Families

A federal judge in the ACLU's Ms. L. v. ICE case ordered the government to reunify separated children under five within 14 days and all others within 30 days. The administration missed the deadlines and admitted it lacked a tracking system. 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.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Tender Age Shelters: Separating and Warehousing Infants and Toddlers

While the Zero Tolerance policy is documented elsewhere, the specific treatment of children under 5 — the 'tender age' population — constituted a distinct category of harm. Infants as young as a few months old were taken from parents and placed in facilities where they were cared for by strangers. Whistleblowers described children crying inconsolably. The American Academy of Pediatrics called the policy 'child abuse.' A federal court gave the government 14 days to reunify this group; the administration missed the deadline.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Zero Tolerance Family Separation: Systematic Removal of Children from Asylum-Seeking Parents

Attorney General Sessions announced a zero tolerance policy in April 2018 requiring criminal prosecution of all illegal border crossers. Because federal criminal custody excludes children, this automatically separated minors from their parents. Over 5,500 children were separated in six weeks. Courts ordered reunification; a June 2022 federal task-force report found about 1,400 children still not reunified.

Grade 4 of 5: Critical Rights and Rule-of-Law Concern

Zero Tolerance: 5,500+ Children Separated, HHS Lost Track of Hundreds

Zero tolerance created systematic family separation as deliberate policy — not incidentally but intentionally, with separation designed as a deterrent. The administration did not build a system to track which children belonged to which parents. A federal judge ordered reunification within 30 days; the government said it could not comply. In October 2020, ACLU lawyers reported they still could not reach the parents of 545 children — many of whom had been deported to Central America without their children, without being told where their children were.