Court orders family reunification

The US district court judge Dana Sabraw on Tuesday granted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit filed over family separations.

Sabraw ordered US border authorities to reunite separated families within 30 days, setting a deadline in a process that has so far yielded uncertainty about when children might again see their parents.

If children are younger than five, they must be reunified within 14 days.

[...]

Sabraw, an appointee of President George W Bush, also issued a nationwide injunction on future family separations, unless the parent is deemed unfit or does not want to be with the child. His ruling requires the government provide phone contact between parents and their children within 10 days.

  The Guardian

That should have been within 24 hours. But at least there is now a definite legal procedure combatting Trump's fascist, cruel policy, and not just that vague, toothless executive order. A DOJ fight on this one would be eminently clarifying.

It is not clear how border authorities will meet the deadline. The health and human services secretary, Alex Azar, told Congress on Tuesday that his department still had custody of 2,047 children separated from their parents at the border. That is only six fewer children than the number in HHS custody from last Wednesday.

Also, what is the penalty if they don't meet the deadline?

The judges’ decision came as 17 states, including New York and California, sued the Trump administration on Tuesday to force it to reunite children and parents. The states, all led by Democratic attorneys general, joined Washington DC, in filing the lawsuit in federal court in Seattle, arguing that they are being forced to shoulder increased child welfare, education and social services costs.

So, not a humanitarian plea?  Just, we don't want to pay for this?  Hopefully, they also made the humanitarian argument.

“This is the Trump era,” [Jeff Sessions] said. “We are enforcing our laws again. We know whose side we are on so does this group and we’re on the side of police, and we’re on the side of the public safety of the American people.”

Hitler's henchman.

Later, protesters gathered outside the hotel where Sessions gave his speech. As his motorcade arrived, the crowd chanted, “Nazi, go home”.

The court also prohibited any deportation of parents without their children, absent of a knowing waiver. In the future, no child can be separated unless it is genuinely in the child’s best interest, such as a showing of a parent as abusive.

  ACLU