Parents separated from their children at the U.S. borders sometimes cannot meet again.

Recent report of lost relatives

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently stated that the US government is not strictly monitoring minors who are separated from their parents.

The report was not officially published as it exposes a very delicate situation for the country.

In order to find a solution to this problem, an internal review was carried out among government agencies.

The Accountability Office investigated the connection between the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

They are the agencies in charge of keeping the records of children separated from their parents.

The HHS is the entity in charge of protecting the custody of minors while they receive a response to their asylum or residence request.

Background of the same situation

Research shows that since 2018 there are more than 27 cases of children who have no record of a relative, therefore they cannot be reunited with their parents.

When minors reached the borders, the entities in charge did not make the appropriate registration in the tracking system of immigrant families.

Since 2018, there have been multiple complaints from Immigration Rights Advocates regarding this situation.

Normally, this process would never take as long if the records were accurate, but without tracking, it can take years to reunite families.

The idea from the beginning was to keep a clean record so that families could be reunited as quickly as possible.

There are a large number of children under 5 years old that must be reunited with their parents, however, if the record is missing, the children must remain in government custody.

Border controls response

Border agencies argue that with the number of people attending every day, it becomes increasingly difficult to keep correct records.

They reiterate that it has never been part of a “plan” to separate families and not fill out the records.

Rather, they say it is human error because of the amount of responsibility employees have at the borders.

They also say that there are so many processes available in their registration system that they must pay as much attention as possible not to make mistakes and sometimes that is exhausting.

Isolated children across the country

What started this problem was that minors were separated from their parents and sent to a juvenile detention center that can be located anywhere in the country.

Thanks to the large numbers of immigrants who arrive every day at the borders, the isolation centers do not have enough space for everyone.

Therefore, they can always be sent anywhere in the US where there is space available and this makes it more difficult to reunite lost family members.

This situation can happen when immigrants try to cross the border illegally or when they reach the border without the necessary documents to request asylum.

Therefore, the best solution to avoid going through this situation, is to seek the best legal help to follow a healthy immigration process.

If you have any questions about an immigration issue or relating to a case you may have currently in Progress, then please don’t hesitate to contact us for a FREE Phone Consultation with one of our expert immigration attorneys.

Simply call Motion Law today at: (202) 918-1799.