There were tears of joy and tears of anguish as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reunited 34 of the 102 children under 5 it had been ordered to return to their parents by Tuesday. (Four other kids had been returned to their parents before Tuesday.) And the federal judge who set the deadline, Dana Sabraw, was not amused. "These are firm deadlines, they're not aspirational goals," he told government lawyers. He asked an ACLU lawyer to propose punishments if the government missed the Tuesday deadline for at least 63 children and the July 26 deadline to reunite parents with the roughly 3,000 older children U.S. border agents forcibly separated under President Trump's "zero tolerance" policy.
The Department of Health and Human Services, which provided the 34-returned-children number, blamed safety concerns for the delay, saying it found parents with criminal backgrounds and five adults who DNA tests showed were not the child's parent. In a court filing Tuesday, the Justice Department gave other extenuating circumstances, including one young child who can't be returned because the whereabouts of his parents are unknown and "records show the parent and child might be U.S. citizens." Judge Sabraw wasn't swayed, conceding only that it would take more time to reunite the 20 children whose parents had already been deported.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Why Justin Welby has stepped down as Archbishop of CanterburyIn the Spotlight 'Lack of curiosity' over claims of abuse of dozens of boys by Christian camp leader had made Welby's position untenable
-
Climate change is threatening Florida's Key deerThe Explainer Questions remain as to how much effort should be put into saving the animals
-
Daniel Lurie: San Francisco's moderate next mayorIn the Spotlight Lurie beat a fellow Democrat, incumbent Mayor London Breed, for the job
-
Saudi crown prince slams Israeli 'genocide' in GazaSpeed Read Mohammed bin Salman has condemned Israel’s actions
-
Trump fills key slots, tapping Congress, MAGA loyalistsSpeed Read The president-elect continues to fill his administration with new foreign policy, environment and immigration roles assigned
-
Haiti council fires prime minister, boosting chaosSpeed Read Prime Minister Garry Conille was replaced with Alix Didier Fils-Aimé
-
Trump tells next Senate GOP leader to skip confirmationsSpeed Read The president-elect said the next Senate majority leader must allow him to make recess appointments
-
Fed cuts rates, chair says he won't quit if Trump asksSpeed Read Jerome Powell was noncommittal on future rate cuts that were expected before Trump won the election
-
Judge revives plea deal for 9/11 suspectsSpeed Read A military judge has ruled to restore the plea deals struck by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and two co-conspirators
-
Harris concedes as world prepares for Trump's returnSpeed Read Vice President Kamala Harris told supporters it was important to 'accept the results of this election'
-
Abortion rights measures go 7 for 10Speed Read Constitutional amendments to protect abortion passed in seven states but failed in three others: Florida, Nebraska and South Dakota
