Sabraw ordered the government to reunite parents with their children younger than 5 years old within 14 days of the order, and children 5 years old and older within 30 days of the order. Sabraw, who was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush, had on June 6 rejected the government's bid to dismiss the case, saying forced separations could "shock the conscience" and amount to a violation of constitutional due process. Yet, the government has no system in place to keep track of, provide effective communication with, and promptly produce alien children. Under the terms of the zero tolerance policy, children were separated from their parents when the adults were arrested for alleged illegal entry into the U.S.

More than 2,000 children have been separated from their parents in recent weeks and placed in government-contracted shelters — hundreds of miles away, in some cases — under a now-abandoned policy toward families caught illegally entering the U.S.

After a national outcry, President Donald Trump hastily issued an executive order to stop the separation of families while officials began the reunification process. Sabraw made the sternly worded decision in response to a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of a seven-year-old girl who was separated from her Congolese mother and a 14-year-old boy who was separated from his Brazilian mother.The judge also issued an injunction against any more family separations, which was part of a policy under which anyone crossing the border illegally is detained and referred for criminal prosecution.US federal authorities have 10 days to allow parents to call their children if they are not already in touch with them, the judge said.Trump last week signed an executive order halting his government's practice of taking children away from parents who cross the border without papers, even to seek asylum. The Supreme Court on Tuesday effectively put an end to a California law that forces anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to provide...

One of President Donald Trump's earliest and most loyal supporters won a key primary runoff Tuesday, as South Carolina Gov. The states, all led by Democratic attorneys general, joined Washington, D.C., in filing the lawsuit in federal court in Seattle, arguing that they are being forced to shoulder increased child welfare, education and social services costs. "Keeping children separated from their parents is inhumane, unconscionable and illegal -- and we're filing suit to stop it," wrote Attorney General Barbara Underwood of New York.Some 200 protesters turned out in Los Angeles to protest a visit by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of the most visible faces of the Trump border control policy.Around 20 were arrested after defying police orders to disperse.Trump did score a big win on immigration Tuesday, however, as the US Supreme Court upheld the latest version of his travel ban targeting people from some Muslim-majority countries.By a 5-4 vote, the court's conservative majority said Trump was within his legal authority as president to issue such a ban.Trump pounced on the decision as an endorsement of his authority to defend national security and "a tremendous success and victory for the American people. We know whose side we are on — so does this group — and we’re on the side of police, and we’re on the side of the public safety of the American people.”

After expressing reluctance in May to get too deeply involved in immigration enforcement decisions, the judge who issued Tuesday’s ruling was clearly influenced by Trump’s reversal last week and the Homeland Security Department’s statement on its family reunification plan Saturday night, which, he said, left many questions unanswered. We know whose side we are on – so does this group – and we’re on the side of police, and we’re on the side of the public safety of the American people.”

Juan Sanchez, chief executive of the nation’s largest shelters for migrant children, said he fears a lack of urgency by the U.S. government could mean it will take months to reunite families. Juan Sanchez of the nonprofit Southwest Key Programs said Tuesday in an interview with The Associated Press that the government has no process in place to speed the return of children separated from their parents as part of the Trump administration's recent "zero-tolerance" immigration policy. Many are destitute people fleeing gang violence and other turmoil in Central America.It was a rare retreat for Trump, who has made fighting immigration -- both illegal and legal -- one of the most sacred mantras of his fiercely US-centered policy agenda.But the order made no specific provisions for families already separated under the policy, which sparked heated criticism in America and worldwide as inhumane and even a form of child abuse.More than 2,000 children taken from their families remain under the care of federal authorities. Attorneys have spoken to about 200 immigrants at the Port Isabel detention facility near Los Fresnos, Texas, since last week, and only a few knew where their children were being held, said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Virginia. Commissioners in Williamson County voted 4-1 on Tuesday to sever ties with the T. Don Hutto Residential Center starting in 2019. Police are arresting about two dozen protesters who sat down and blocked a street outside the U.S. attorney's office in downtown Los Angeles to protest the Trump administration's immigration policies. Dozens of protesters have showed up outside a Los Angeles hotel where Attorney General Jeff Sessions has arrived to address the conservative Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.
Eighteen attorneys general, representing seventeen U.S. states and Washington DC, sue the Trump administration over migrant family separations at the U.S. border with Mexico. The litigants demand around 2,000 migrant children be reunited with their families.