The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) pushed back against a California judge’s order about family reunification of illegal immigrants Friday.
San Diego Judge Dana M. Sabraw demanded in June the Trump administration unite over 2,000 detained children with their parents by July 26.
The Southern District of California court file indicated that HHS needed to reunite 2,551 children between five to 17 years old due to a zero tolerance policy to stop illegal immigration. HHS discovered, however, the number of minors reported included those “who were separated for other reasons,” according to a press release.
“It is not, nor should it be, our objective to reunify all 2,551 minors with the adult whom they arrived here with, because some of those adults are not their parents or pose a clear danger to the children,” HHS spokesperson Evelyn Stauffer said in a statement Friday.
The HHS will still attempt to reunite all children 5-17 who are separated from their parents and are deemed eligible, Stauffer added in an email to The Daily Caller News Foundation Sunday. (RELATED: ACLU Wants To Force The Government To Pay For Reunification Of Illegal Immigrant Families)
The Trump administration reunited 57 of 103 migrant children under five with their parents as of Thursday, however, 46 were deemed ineligible for reunification due to safety concerns posed by an adult including false parental status, “serious criminal history,” and a history of sexual abuse.
Editor’s Note: The original version of this story claimed HHS would only reunite families separated under the zero tolerance border policy. The post has been updated with statement from HHS.
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