Donald Trump caused a crisis on the border over the past several months by implementing a zero-tolerance policy that rips migrant children from their parents, and his administration’s effort to fix it has been a disaster.
According to NBC News, citing legal documents filed late Thursday, less than 15 percent of families have been reunited.
“The Trump administration said in a court filing late Thursday that it has reunified 364 of more than 2,500 migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S. southern border, just one week out from a court-ordered deadline,” the report noted.
The court-ordered deadline for the Trump administration to reunite these families is July 26. Thursday’s news is a red flag that the administration won’t even come close to making it.
To get more stories like this, subscribe to our newsletter The Daily.
Worse: Hundreds of parents will face immediate deportation once being reunited with their children
To make matters worse, the report adds: “Of 1,607 parents eligible to be reunited with their children, the filing said, 719 have final orders of deportation, meaning they could be removed from the country as soon as they are reunited.”
According to NBC News, those hundreds of parents will “have to choose between bringing their child back to a violent country or leaving them behind in the care of the government, nonprofits, foster families or relatives in order to seek asylum in the United States.”
To sum things up: Trump caused this humanitarian crisis on the border by implementing a policy that no previous president of either party has ever enacted.
In trying to clean up their mess, they have severely bungled the response and seem unable or unwilling to efficiently return these children to their parents.
And when they do finally reunite these families, hundreds of them will face immediate deportation – meaning that some of the parents will have to choose between bringing their children back to a violent country or being ripped from their kids once again.
It’s easy to forget this story as Trump continues to sell out the United States to a hostile foreign government, but it’s important. The damage that Trump has done to these children will outlast his presidency and anyone with a conscience should be outraged.
Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
