A number of detained migrant parents were torn from their children not once, but twice by the Trump administration, a lawsuit alleges. “F.G.” and his 17-year-old were finally reunited after more than 50 days apart, but it would prove to be brief:
The fathers claim that [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] ICE agents presented them with forms that were written mostly in English, with three options at the bottom in Spanish: being deported with their children, being deported without their children, and waiting to speak to a lawyer. All four claim that the first option—parent and child alike getting deported—had already been selected for them.
But the parents refused to be deported with their kids, and wanted to check the second option, which would consent to their own deportation while allowing their kids to remain here to pursue possible claims. But they were “yelled at by the ICE agents,” and “told they simply were not allowed to select another option.” When the parents refused, they were separated from their children yet again, despite Judge Dana Sabraw ordering the reunification of separated families.
“When, ultimately, the four fathers whose accounts are represented in the testimony succeeded in selecting the option of getting deported on their own, they were prevented from saying goodbye to their children,” Vox’s Dara Lind reports. “Instead, their children were forced to wave to them from inside the bus they were still sitting on.”
Federal immigration officials have already been accused of coercing or misleading parents into deportation, “and some parents say they signed paperwork they didn't understand and unknowingly relinquished their rights to reunite with their children.” And now, they continue to separate them—to hell with court orders, apparently. ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are out of control, and the Republican-led Congress enables them every step of the way.