- Hundreds of migrant parents were deported without the option of taking their children back with them, a government investigation found.
- “[In] some cases, parents told ICE officers they wanted their children to accompany them back to their home country — but ICE nevertheless removed the parents without reunifying them, leaving their children in the United States,” according to the report.
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not have policies in place for recording or honoring the decision of migrant parents facing removal regarding reunification with their children.
Migrant parents were inconsistently allowed to reunite with their children before deportation from July 2017 to July 2018, according to an Office of the Inspector General’s report released Tuesday.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials deported at least 348 migrant parents who were separated from their children during that time frame without documenting whether they wanted to leave their kids in the U.S., according to the report. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and ICE officials weren’t required to document whether deported migrant parents decided to leave without their children and claimed most of them chose to.
“ICE records reflect that in some cases, parents told ICE officers they wanted their children to accompany them back to their home country — but ICE nevertheless removed the parents without reunifying them, leaving their children in the United States,” the report found. “Therefore, at least some of ICE’s removals of parents without their children were intentional, and not just inadvertent incidents resulting from human error or inaccurate records.”
Lourdes de Leon hugs her son Leo -one of three minors who had been separated from their family on the U.S. border- upon arrival at the shelter “Nuestras Raíces” in Guatemala City, on August 7, 2018. (ORLANDO ESTRADA/AFP via Getty Images)
Some of the documents allegedly recording migrant parents’ decisions to leave their children in the country were “significantly flawed,” according to the inspector general’s report. Some records didn’t include what information was provided to migrant parents before they made the decision to leave their children or whether they were offered reunification before orally waiving the option.
“In the months following Zero Tolerance, DHS and ICE leaders repeatedly maintained that ICE policy provided migrant parents with the opportunity to bring their children with them upon removal to their home country,” the report found. (RELATED: Why Are Illegal Migrants Exposing Their Children To The Dangers Of Being Smuggled Into The US?)
Former DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielson said parents chose whether or not to take children with them when they were deported while testifying to Congress in December 2018, according to the report. ICE officials could see whether officers noted a parent’s choice regarding reunification with their kids prior to deportation, former ICE Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Matthew Albence told Congress in July 2018.
“Despite DHS and ICE statements, ICE did not have clear guidance to include any prescribed process or procedure requiring officers to ascertain, document, or honor parents’ decisions as to whether to leave their children in the United States when they were removed,” the report continued.
ICE policy did not include guidelines or procedures for allowing migrant parents to decide whether they wanted to be reunited with their children before they were deported, so officials acted inconsistently depending on when and where they were removed, according to the report.
An ICE directive implemented in August 2017 required migrant parents in removal proceedings to make care or travel arrangements for their children in the U.S. and required officials to provide the parent with detailed travel information, according to the report. ICE does not require field offices to ask migrants if they want to bring their kids back with them, honor parent’s requests regarding their children or maintain documents related to reunification.
Former President Donald Trump ended the practice of separating families in 2018 and the Biden administration officially rescinded the Zero Tolerance policy on Jan. 26, according to NBC News.
The U.S. has experienced a migrant surge over the first several months of 2021, and over 600 unaccompanied migrant children were in Customs and Border Protection facilities and more than 19,100 kids were in Department of Health and Human Services custody as of Thursday, according to the agency.
ICE did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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