By Louise Meagher
In 2018 the Trump administration made a decision to separate more than 1,000 families at the border who were trying to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexican border. They called this the “zero tolerance act” That meant that 100 percent of parents caught that were unknowing of this policy, would be taken with their families to a detention center.
Once they reached the detention center, families would be separated, kids going into holding cells, with hundreds of other kids, and parents going into separate holding cells, where they would most likely face prosecution. Once they were prosecuted, they were deported back to Mexico, and the parents were often not reunited with their kids, or any of their family.
In June of 2018 it was discovered that the reunification of families was not included in this policy. Following this discovery there was a huge community outcry, and international criticism. Later on June 20th, 2018 President Trump signed an executive order that would put a stop to and end family separation, and agreed to provide a list of all names, and documentation, ordered by a U.S. federal judge.
Once these lists were provided, they were found to be nonspecific, and incomplete. They were then given to an organization working to reunite deported parents, and the kids left in holding. Although, they could barely do this, because of the poor state of these lists.
Even though the policy is not currently active, there are still 545 kids without any parents. There are lots of groups trying to reunite families, but the damage has already been done, most parents are unreachable or unknown. While the search process goes on, we can hope that families are reunited speedily, and we wish good luck to the people locating parents.
