A US federal judge prohibited the practice of separating migrant children from their families for eight years on Friday following a settlement that will allow migrant children and their families, who were separated at the US-Mexico border, to be reunited.
The “Mrs. L” deal, the result of a lawsuit against US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other government agencies, covers those affected by the 2018 Trump administration policy to separate children from their caregivers if they could not provide documentation at the border. It promises that the federal government “will establish processes to provide the opportunity for all Ms. L. Settlement Class members to be able to reunify with their separated parent, Legal Guardian, or child.” The settlement will see certain class members and other family members returned to the US at the government’s expense to facilitate reunification. Additionally, the settlement will provide for housing and medical costs for families.
The original lawsuit was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) after a woman from the Congo was separated from her seven-year-old child in 2017 at the San Diego border crossing. The ACLU alleged the Trump-era policy violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Asylum Statute and the Due Process Clause of the US Constitution. The ACLU argued that the mother’s procedural rights were infringed upon when she was not given proper notice and a hearing before separating her from her child and that her liberty interest was violated as an asylum seeker when she was separated from her daughter. They also claimed that the government did not have a compelling interest in separating the asylum seeker from her child, which violates the Constitution’s Due Process Clause.
About 1,000 migrant children are still separated from their caregivers. In response to the UN finding that the “zero-tolerance” child separation policy violated international human rights laws, former President Trump had given interviews saying that the policy was based on a rationale of deterrence.
