Biden admin to allow families separated at border to stay in the US

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced on Monday that President Joe Biden would allow separated families during the past administration to reunite and live in the US.
• Immigration groups urged the new administration to offer legal compensation and extensive assistance to the affected families.
• By far, Biden’s reunification scheme has reunited over 105 families.

The White House announced on Monday that President Joe Biden would permit families separated at the Mexican border by former President Donald Trump to reunite and stay in the US.

“We are hoping to reunite the families, either here or in their country of origin. We hope to be in a position to give them the election. And if, in fact, they seek to reunite here in the United States, we will explore lawful pathways for them to remain in the United States, and address the family needs,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said during a press conference. 

“We are acting as restoratively as possible,” he added.

Per immigration advocates, the new administration should also seek to compensate families who got separated under the past administration.

“We applaud Secretary Mayorkas’ commitment to remedy the torture and abuse of families who were separated from their children in immigration proceedings. Of course, the devil is in the details and Secretary Mayorkas has to shed all the caveats and qualifications around his announcement and follow through with everything that’s necessary to right the wrong,” Anthony Romero, the director of American Civil Liberties Union Executive said in a statement.

Mayorkas, though, did not provide further details about the legal pursuit of families who opted to stay in the country. They also did not specify the kind of policy that could apply to those reunited families.

“We are going to be discussing what [we can] do under the law because remember, we must address the needs of each family member in an individualized way, each family unit in an individualized way, in accordance with the law,” he said. “Our overarching goal is, of course, to be as humane as the law provides, to be as restorative as the law enables us to be to bring justice to these families.”

Other advocate groups have also urged the White House to extend wide-ranging help to affected families.

“We should have a legislative solution to allow families impacted by zero-tolerance to remain in the U.S. They should be offered a path to a permanent status given what they’ve been through,”  American Immigration Council policy director Jorge Loweree said.

Mayorkas also revealed that Michelle Brané would be the executive director of the family reunification task force. Brané is the Migrant Rights and Justice program director at the Women’s Refugee Commission.

Biden has recently created the task force which is being led by Mayorkas. Currently, the program has reunited over 105 families. While some families have reunited, about 550 children have yet to be with their parents.

During the previous administration, around 2,800 families were separated in 2018 in accordance with Trump’s family separation policy.

Source: The Hill