WASHINGTON —
Billy’s friends don’t know that 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.
At a high school in the rural South, Billy plays American football and soccer, but the 16-year-old doesn’t talk about his experiences. Six years ago, Billy was told by his father that he was being adopted, and he was terrified. He will never see his son again.
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 claim.
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 said specifically whether they would reinstate the practice if he wins on Nov. 5, but he has previously defended it.
“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 mobilize all the federal and state powers necessary to begin the process of “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 videos on social media to highlight the policy. 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 2023 settlement would prohibit future administrations from using family separation as a broad policy until 2031. But supporters have concerns.
Christy Turner Harvath, senior adviser at Children in Need of Defense, said she was concerned that the policy exception would be misused and said political will would be needed to force reconciliation.
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 records were inadequate, 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.
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.
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.
