Private shelter operators want to open as many as four new facilities to accommodate the continued influx of children.
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
Number of children in Texas shelters continues to grow after end of “zero tolerance”
Even after the Trump administration said it would reunify families separated under the now-paused “zero tolerance” policy, new data shows the number of children held in privately run shelters in Texas has continued to grow.
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Families Divided
Honduran father finally reunited with his daughter in Texas
Mario, one of 32 immigrant parents transferred to an El Paso shelter earlier this month after being separated from their children at the border, was one of the last parents from the group to be reunited with their children.
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Families Divided
Federal government has reunited 450 migrant children over 5, leaving 2,000 still separated
The government has a court-ordered deadline of July 26 to reunify the rest of the children. But last time it came up against a deadline, the government declared almost half the children “ineligible.”
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Families Divided
Immigrant infants too young to talk called into court to defend themselves
At least 70 infants have been ordered to appear in immigration court after being separated from their parents.
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Families Divided
Analysis: An immigration fiasco on the U.S.-Mexico border, in one government chart
A government chart — part of a federal court brief — lays out what happens to immigrant children separated from the adults who brought them to the U.S. It shows three outcomes. Only one ends in reunification.
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Families Divided
Judge temporarily blocks immediate deportations of reunited immigrant families
Parents should have time to make an “informed, non-coerced decision” about whether they want to leave the country with their children, the ACLU had argued.
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Families Divided
Salvadoran mom gets her daughter back after almost two months apart
A Salvadoran mother and her 16-year-old daughter — separated by U.S. authorities in mid-May — were finally reunited in Corpus Christi Friday. Tears dissolved into smiles as the two walked out of the Bokenkamp Children’s Shelter.
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Families Divided
Brazilian asylum-seeker released after 11 months in detention and will soon see her grandson
Maria Vandelice de Bastos, who was detained and separated from her disabled grandson after they sought asylum at a port of entry last year, has been released from federal custody. But her ordeal is far from over after an immigration judge dismissed her asylum case.
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Families Divided
Analysis: Completing reunifications without putting families back together
The federal government completed its first round of family reunifications, but 45 percent of the children involved were not reconnected with the adults who brought them into the U.S.