McALLEN, Texas (AP) — A judge in California on Tuesday ordered U.S. border authorities to reunite separated families within 30 days, setting a hard deadline in a process that has so far yielded uncertainty about when children might again see their parents. If the children are younger than five years old, they must be reunified within 14 days of the order, the order issued late on Tuesday said

US District Judge Dana Sabraw in the city of San Diego issued the order following a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Sabraw, an appointee of President George W. Bush, also issued a nationwide injunction on future family separations, unless the parent is deemed unfit or doesn’t want to be with the child. US federal authorities have 10 days to allow parents to call their children if they are not already in touch with them. 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.

Amid an international outcry, Trump last week issued an executive order to stop the separation of families and said parents and children will instead be detained together. Sabraw issued the ruling 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. In a separate action launched on Tuesday, 17 states began proceedings to sue Mr Trump's administration to force it to reunite the thousands of immigrant children and parents who have been separated at the US-Mexico border. 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. Sanchez with the nonprofit Southwest Key Programs said in an interview with The Associated Press that the government has no process in place to speed the return of children to their parents. “We have now exchanged, with the executive order, the chaos of separation of children with the impending chaos of internment of families on military bases,” he said, and urged people to use “their faith and their feet” to join rallies planned across the nation Saturday in opposition to family separation. Instead it found that the zero-tolerance policy, begun in early May, along with the executive order and a subsequent fact sheet issued by the Department of Homeland Security outlining the process of removal, marked a sharp departure from “measured and ordered governance, which is central to the concept of due process enshrined in our Constitution.”

The judge stated bluntly: “The unfortunate reality is that under the present system, migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property.”

The government’s capacity to quickly reunite families was questioned Tuesday at a Senate Finance Committee hearing, where Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar described a laborious process of background checks and verifications of family connections. Earlier, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar refused to be pinned down on how long it would take. Their urgent need is just trying to figure out, ‘Where is my parent?’”

Since calling for an end to the separations, administration officials have been casting about for detention space for migrants, with the Pentagon drawing up plans to hold as many as 20,000 at U.S. military bases. Outside the U.S. attorney’s office, protesters carried signs reading, “Free the children!” and “Stop caging families.” Clergy members blocked the street by forming a human chain.
A federal judge in California orders a halt to most family separations at the US-Mexico border and the reunification of all families.