Aimee Walker
105 parents have been reunited with their migrant children during the first month of Joe Biden being in office.
Donald Trump’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy in 2017 saw thousands of children torn apart from their families at the US-Mexico border.
However, the new President has made it one of his priorities to reunite them.
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So far, lawyers and advocates on the case have been able to whittle the number of parents that need to be found down to 506. In January, this number stood at 611, NBC News reports.
According to the Justice Department lawyers, around 332 of these childrens’ parents have been deported, making it much more difficult for them to be found.
Along with Biden’s task force, the department’s lawyers have pledged that they will help to ‘resolve many — if not all — outstanding issues’.
Recently, a White House statement was released that read: “This task force will work across the US government, with key stakeholders and representatives of impacted families, and with partners across the hemisphere to find parents and children separated by the Trump administration.”
Biden commented: “I’m not making new law, I’m eliminating bad policy. This is about how America’s safer, stronger, more prosperous when we have a fair, orderly, and humane legal immigration system.”
Also assisting in the reunification efforts is Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union Immigrants’ Rights Project.
He’s stated: “People ask when we will find all of these families, and sadly, I can’t give an answer. I just don’t know.
“But we will not stop looking until we have found every one of the families, no matter how long it takes. The tragic reality is that hundreds of parents were deported to Central America without their children, who remain here with foster families or distant relative.”
Featured Image Credit: CBS Evening News
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