ACLU: The U.S. Government Has Taken 911 More Kids From Their Asylum-Seeking Families

By Shani Saxon Jul 31, 2019

Attorneys from The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed court documents in California on Tuesday (July 30) to ask a federal judge to halt the Trump administration’s continued separation of families at the southern border, Reuters reports.

The government’s widely maligned “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which allowed the criminal prosecution of people who cross the United States-Mexico border with their children, was supposed to end by executive order on June 20, 2018. Nearly 3,000 children were torn from their parents or guardians under zero tolerance. Now the ACLU alleges that, despite the official halt of the policy, more than 900 additional kids have been separated from their families.

Per Reuters, ACLU attorneys told the judge, “The government is systematically separating large numbers of families based on minor criminal history, highly dubious allegations of unfitness and errors in identifying bona fide parent-child relationships.” 

In its motion, which is more than 200-pages, the ACLU specifies that “[the government is] separating young children based on such offenses as traffic violations, misdemeanor property damage and disorderly conduct violations.”

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has so far declined to comment on the ACLU’s lawsuit.