WASHINGTON — Friends of 16-year-old Billy, who attends a high school in the rural South, said he was one of the thousands of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under then-President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy. I don’t know that I’m one of them.
At school, where he plays football and soccer, Billy doesn’t talk about what he went through – his father was told six years ago that Billy was being put up for adoption and feared he’d never see his son again. That’s what it means.
With an election looming in the United States that could see Trump return to office, Billy is reminding people that what happened to him and thousands of other children still reverberates. I would like people to know about this. Some families have not been reunited, and many who are staying with them in the United States have temporary status, fearing that a victorious President Trump will carry out the mass deportations he promised.
“It was a very painful thing that happened to us,” said Billy, who was nine years old at the time. He did not want his full name or state of residence identified for fear of jeopardizing his family’s asylum claims.
Trump has made his views on immigration central to his campaign, accusing the Biden administration and Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris of failing to secure the southern border. Although Harris has not made immigration a focus of her campaign, she has singled out Trump’s zero-tolerance policy, one of the most controversial immigration policies of his presidency.
The Trump administration aimed to criminally prosecute all adults who cross the border illegally. Parents were separated from their children and the children were moved to shelters across the country.
Trump and his campaign have not specifically said whether they would reinstate the practice if they win on Nov. 5. Trump has previously defended the practice, claiming without evidence in an interview with Univision last year that he had “prevented hundreds of thousands of people from attending.” ”
“President Trump has reinstated effective immigration policies, implemented a new crackdown that will shock all criminal smugglers around the world, and launched a massive deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug traffickers, and human traffickers. “We will marshal all the federal and state powers necessary to begin “American history,” said Trump campaign spokeswoman Caroline Levitt.
This month, the Harris campaign held an event featuring children separated from their families in an effort to draw attention to President Trump’s policies.
Billy, who spoke at the event, is part of a group of children who are sharing their stories in short social media videos to highlight zero tolerance policies. Billy and his father also visited members of Congress in Washington.
Billy told The Associated Press that although he doesn’t usually talk about his experiences, they are “trying to speak out and share our stories” to prevent something like this from happening again. spoke.
Most of the families separated years ago are in legal limbo, with their immigration status in question. A settlement between the families and the Biden administration announced last year gives them two years to apply for asylum under a more favorable process.
As the election approaches, supporters say they have heard from separated families expressing concern that Trump will keep his promise to deport millions of people if elected. are.
“The families we serve are scared and have many questions about what the new Trump administration means for them,” he said in 2018 in response to zero-tolerance policies. Anil Chadwick Soltes, director of the free organization Together & Free, which was founded in 2007, said: . This group works to support separated families.
The 2023 settlement prohibits future administrations from using family separation as a broad policy until 2031. But supporters have concerns.
Christy Turner Harvath, senior adviser for Children in Need of Defense, said she was concerned that the policy exceptions would be abused and said political will would be needed to enforce the policy.
The Trump administration’s policy departed from the common practice of keeping families with children together when they come to the southern border.
The aim was to deter people by criminally prosecuting anyone who crossed the border. In the case of a family member, the parents were indicted. Children who could not be detained were treated as unaccompanied minors and transferred to shelters.
In response to the outcry, President Trump announced on June 20, 2018, that he was ending the policy. Six days later, a judge ordered the government to reunite thousands of separated families. Government computer systems were not properly connected, making family reunification difficult. The situation was further complicated by the deportation of many parents.
When Democrat Joe Biden became president, he created a task force to reunite families. Based on the efforts of groups that have sued the Trump administration, the task force has identified approximately 5,000 children who have been separated and approximately 1,400 who have not been confirmed to be reunited with their families.
Some are in progress. Others are believed to have been reunited in the United States, but have not come forward, perhaps fearing government intervention. No valid contact information exists for the other person, so the search continues.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to help end family separation, estimates that the number of separated children is nearly 5,500.
Lee Gellert, the lead attorney on the case, said the ACLU estimates that as many as 1,000 families remain separated.
“There are now young children who spend most of their lives without parents,” he says.
The task force operates a website where families can register to reunite and is working with the International Organization for Migration to assist families with things such as obtaining passports to come to the United States. The head of the special committee visits the family’s home country and makes an announcement on the radio that they are looking for the parents.
Advocacy groups have also contributed.
Justice in Motion, which works with advocates in Mexico and Central America to track parents, uses their last known address to identify the person, including neighbors, local businesses, hospitals and schools. We are talking to people who may know his whereabouts.
But they are stuck with poor record-keeping that is now outdated, said Nan Siobhan, the group’s legal director.
Families and separated children are grappling with the fallout.
For Efran, 22, there was a sense of guilt. Efrain said her father didn’t want her to come to the United States in 2018, but he forced her to do so. When the two eventually separated, Efrain wondered if her father would have been better off alone.
His father was deported to Guatemala. Efrain, who did not want his full name published for fear of repercussions, was kept in a shelter for unaccompanied children for about five months.
Her father has diabetes, and Efrain was worried about his health. After Efrain left the shelter and was able to make video calls, he noticed how thin his father looked.
Three years later, the two met again at the Atlanta airport. Since then, Efrain has been trying to make up for lost time. He said he suffered from anxiety and loneliness, reflecting the loneliness he felt after separating from his father.
“It’s like being alone in a locked room,” he said in Spanish.
Meanwhile, after all these years, Billy’s father still cries when he talks about what he and his son went through. He believes people have forgotten what happened and the family’s trauma.
Billy says he has found purpose in sharing what he went through, saying, “I know there is great power in my story.”
Associated Press writer Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.
First Published: October 26, 2024 at 3:25 p.m.
