The Trump administration stole more than 2,500 children from their parents at the border this spring, and while outside pressure and lawsuits have gotten 1,992 of those children reunited with their parents, 559 children were still separated from their parents as of August 9, the Washington Post reports. That’s 559 scared, traumatized children who do not know when they will see their parents again, if ever.
- 138 children’s parents have not been contacted or their location is unknown: “This includes parents who have been deported to their home country, have left the country voluntarily, have been released into the United States, whose locations are otherwise unknown or whose relationship with the child is still under review.”
- 299 children’s parents are outside the U.S. (read: deported) but have been contacted within the past week.
- 163 children’s parents said they didn’t want to reunify or waived parental rights. Some of these parents may prefer losing their children to the United States to losing them to murder in their home countries, but according to the ACLU, “many parents signed forms waiving their reunification rights while separated from their children and under duress this spring or without understanding them.”
- 87 children remain separated from parents because background checks revealed criminal histories or because the adults the children entered with aren’t or may not be their parents—and to the Trump administration, grandparents and uncles and aunts don’t matter.
- Finally, 88 children are separated from their parents because of “other unspecified litigation.”
It’s great that 1,992 children have been reunited with their parents, but 1) none of these children should have been taken from their parents to begin with, 2) those 1,992 have still been traumatized and abused, and 3) we continue to have 559 reasons to hang our heads in national shame.
Reunite them, now.