Government officials say they’ll meet a pair of court-ordered deadlines to reunite children with their parents. But doing so, HHS Secretary Alex Azar warned, could mean relaxed standards for vetting those parents.
Families Divided
President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy drew sharp rebukes after it was announced in April 2018 — especially after children who had been separated from their parents started being placed in a tent city in Tornillo. Trump signed an executive order June 20 that would keep immigrant families together, but it’s unclear how — or if — families that have already been separated will be reunited. With support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, The Texas Tribune has been reporting on the issue from the Texas-Mexico border, Washington, D.C., and Austin. You can help by sending story tips to tips@texastribune.org.
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Families Divided
Detained migrant parents have to pay to call their family members. Some can’t afford to.
Detainees trying to contact their family members are stymied by long wait times, confusing instructions, dropped calls and sometimes per-minute phone charges that critics say are exorbitant.
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Families Divided
Immigrant parents reckon with Trump’s changing policies at the border
When President Donald Trump issued an executive order two weeks ago ending family separations, Evelyn Becerra heard the news and decided to leave Guatemala with her 2-year-old daughter.
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Families Divided
Judge rules Trump administration can’t arbitrarily detain asylum seekers
President Donald Trump’s administration’s practice of indefinitely detaining some asylum seekers can’t proceed, a federal district judge has ruled.
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Families Divided
Next to a shelter holding immigrant children, church’s congregants defend family separations
Congregants at Harlingen’s Lighthouse Fellowship Church — located just yards away from one of the largest shelters for immigrant children in Texas — said the president was right to split up families who entered the country illegally.
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Families Divided
Analysis: What sees us through
In a steady rain of bad news — shootings, immigrant family separations, harsh political differences — one thing stands out. We’re tenacious.
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Families Divided
Scenes from “Families Belong Together” rallies across Texas
Texans in multiple cities joined rallies across the country Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies and call for the reunification of thousands of immigrant children who were separated from their parents
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Families Divided
Thousands across Texas protest at “Families Belong Together” rallies
Thousands gathered in Texas cities and around the country Saturday to protest the separation of undocumented children from their families. More than 2,000 children remain separated from their families due to Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy of criminally prosecuting all illegal entries.
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Families Divided
For Texas ranchers living along border fence, talk of an illegal crossing crisis is exaggerated
Many Rio Grande Valley residents have farmed land along the border fence for decades. On hot summer days, they mow their lawns and repair trucks, take care of ailing relatives and sip coffee at local convenience stores. What they don’t do, they say, is worry about a crisis at the border.
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Families Divided
Trump administration plans to detain migrant families for months
The Trump administration plans to detain migrant families together in custody rather than release them, according to a new court filing that suggests such detentions could last longer than the 20 days envisioned by a court settlement.