Thursday, April 8, 2021

We know a lot about family separations. The most troubling thing: How much we still don’t know

We know a lot about family separations. The most troubling thing: How much we still don't know

For years we’ve been telling the stories of thousands of migrant families that the US government separated.

Moms like Beata Mejia, who sued to reunite with her son after the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy tore them apart. Children like Alejandro, who struggled to readjust to life after suffering trauma he never expected. And the lengthy courtroom battles to bring families back together.
This week President Biden is expected to announce the creation of a new task force aimed at reuniting parents and children who remain separated.
There are so many troubling details in the stories we do know about the family separations policy and its aftermath. And there are still so many stories that we don’t know yet.
    Here’s a recap of how we got here, what we know and what we don’t:

    We know…

    The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics called it “government-sanctioned child abuse.”
    The government separated families without any plan for reuniting them.
    Parents wrote desperate letters, begging for help.
    Protesters poured into the streets.
    A federal judge’s order forced the government to reunite the separated families who were still in government custody in June 2018. That led to more than 2,100 children being reunited with their parents.
    Advocates say the government should help with something even more important: bringing deported parents back to the United States and giving them the chance to stay.

    We don’t know…

    • … where the parents of 611 children are.
    • … if they know what happened to their children.
      • … whether these families will ever be reunited.
      what a new government task force will do about it.

      >>>>