WASHINGTON: U.S. president Joe Biden is on Tuesday expected to announce a task force to reunify families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border during the administration of former President Donald Trump.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Friday that Alejandro Mayorkas, Biden’s nominee for Department of Homeland Security Secretary who still faces a confirmation vote in the U.S. Senate, would lead the task force.
In one of its most controversial policies to deter illegal migration, the Trump administration separated at least 5,500 migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
The separations happened mostly in 2017 and 2018, because parents were being criminally prosecuted for illegal entry or over concerns about their identities or criminal histories.
Biden pledged to create a task force to reunify families that are still separated and White House spokeswoman Psaki says the first lady, Jill Biden, is committed to the project, although it is not clear what role she may play. Advocates have called for counseling and support for parents and children who were separated, the right for deported parents to return to the United States, and a legal pathway for people affected to stay in the country.
The task force will make regular reports to President Biden and plans to work across government and with representatives of separated families, as well as with “partners across the hemisphere to find parents and children separated by the Trump Administration,” according to a factsheet distributed to reporters Monday. It will focus on but not be limited to families separated under the “zero tolerance” policy, officials said.
The ACLU is working with other non-profit groups to search for parents by phone. They have created a toll-free number for parents to call and have conducted in-person searches in home countries such as Guatemala and Honduras. But the coronavirus pandemic and safety concerns have limited their ability to conduct these investigations, according to a brief filed in the case this month.
