The Trump administration last July so badly botched the reunification of a group of 37 migrant children, ranging from ages 5 to 12, who had been stolen from their parents at the border that many were left stranded in a van for nearly a day, after what was supposed to be a 30 minute ride, NBC News reports. In one child’s case, they were left stranded for 39 hours.
The Trump administration was under court order to return children stolen from parents under the barbaric “zero tolerance” policy. BCFS Heath and Human Services, contracted by the federal government to hold these kids, was ready to reunite them, driving about 30 minutes to Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Port Isabel Detention Center in Texas, where their parents were to meet them. ICE, internal emails from BCFS reveal, was not ready.
“Despite two notifications from [Health and Human Services] that the children would be arriving, ICE officers kept to their regular schedule, clocking out for the day while the parking lot filled with children eager to see their parents again,” NBC News continues. “There was no one present to greet the arriving children and they were not equipped to process them in a parking lot, the BCFS official told NBC News, describing the scene as ‘hurried disarray.’”
The children were initially taken inside the ICE facility, a BCFS email stated, but were then taken back out because it was deemed too cold (which also raises questions about conditions for the parents inside). So why didn’t BCFS just turn around and not come back until ICE could get its act together? Because they were told to stay put: “ICE told BCFS staff that if the children returned to Harlingen, they would be further delayed in seeing their parents.”
The end result was dozens of kids being forced to wait in the parking lot. “As day turned to night, BCFS staff quickly realized the vans would not provide adequate shelter for children staying overnight. Additional vans were called in to allow children room to sleep as were blankets and food collected from the HHS facility in Harlingen where the children had previously stayed.” The first child would not be reunited until past 1 AM. Most kids spent at least 23 hours in a van. The last child would not be reunited until nearly 6 AM Tuesday, 39 hours after leaving Harlingen.
This is child abuse—and it’s on the administration’s hands because this whole policy has been a disaster from the start. Investigations have already found that officials ripped families apart with no way to link them back together, leading to some kids having their separation agonizingly lengthened. This crime against humanity has only continued, because the administration has identified at least 1,712 additional kids that may have been stolen prior to the policy. Family separation remains a crisis.