Trump administration seeks new deadline for reuniting migrant families
LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — The Trump administration has asked a court to extend a deadline to reunite some detained children from their migrant parents, arguing it needs more time to perform necessary checks and confirm identities.
The administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) also asked a federal judge in San Diego for relief from part of an earlier order that could require the government to release adult immigrant detainees if they cannot be reunited with their children before the court’s deadline.
Judge Dana Sabraw issued an injunction on June 26 requiring the government to reunite detained migrant children under the age of five within 14 days and those over that age within 30 days.
In a filing submitted Thursday, the DOJ said the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) was using DNA swab testing to determine parentage.
But it said that even though the department “is moving expeditiously to undertake these DNA tests, that process takes meaningful time, even when it is expedited.”
It added that given the possibility of false claims, “confirming parentage is critical to ensure that children are returned to their parents, not to potential traffickers,” and that the government also needed to determine whether the adults had a criminal history or could present a danger to their children.
The government did not request a specific new set of deadlines, but instead sought to “prepare a proposal for an alternative timeline.”
It also sought relief from a paragraph in the original injunction that prohibits the government from detaining adult migrants without their children, arguing it could be read to require the release of such detainees if they had not been reunified within the time frame set by the court.
Judge Sabraw was set to hold a status hearing on Friday about his original injunction, which was brought by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of migrant parents.
President Donald Trump reversed his government’s “zero tolerance” policy on June 20 following public outcry, but it is unclear how many of up to 3,000 detained children have been returned.
