Honduran asylum-seeker, 2, cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border on June 12, 2018, in McAllen, Texas.Photo: John Moore/Getty
Some migrant families who wereseparated at the U.S. borderwith Mexico during the Trump administration may receive thousands of dollars in compensation for the ordeal and any damages the policy may have caused them,The New York Timesreports.
Sources told the paper that negotiations are ongoing, however, and that some family members may receive much less than that amount. (A White House spokesman referred PEOPLE’s questions about theTimesreport to the Department of Justice, where a spokeswoman declined to comment.)
More than5,500 children were separatedfrom their families under PresidentDonald Trump’s controversial “zero-tolerance” immigration policy before he signed an executive order in June 2018reversing the practice, which had drawn overwhelming backlash.
While the policy was in place, Border Patrol agents charged adult migrants with illegally entering the U.S., detained them and then sent their children to shelters across the country.
Central American migrant children remain outside the Puente Nuevo border station in the municipality of Matamoros, in the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico, in October 2019.Abraham Pineda Jácome/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
The Biden administration continued the work ofreuniting familiesearlier this year after the president signed an executive order which created the Task Force on the Reunification of Families.
Some parents who were deported after they were separated from their children have been allowed to return to the U.S. for a limited time as part of the reunion.
TheTimesreports that in addition to financial compensation, the negotiations on a settlement with affected families includes access to mental health services like counseling for parents and kids who were torn apart.
source: people.com
