DONALD Trump was told yesterday by the UN Human rights office to make major changes to immigration polices and look for alternatives to detention. UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said children should never be held in custody, even with their parents.
The call came as a senior administration official said about 500 of the more than 2,300 children separated from their families at the US border with Mexico have been reunited since May. It was unclear how many of the 500 or so children were still in custody, with their parents.
The US has been under fire for its policy of separating children at the border from parents who face prosecution for illegally crossing the border.
In a climbdown on Wednesday US President Trump signed an executive that means families staying together during immigration proceedings, but they will still be detained.
“While we acknowledge the US government’s decision not to continue separating children from their parents, we understand that the practice now will be to detain the children with their parents,” said Shamdasani.
“We have said time and again the children should never be detained in relation to their or their parents’ migration status. It is never in the best interests of the child for them to be detained.”
Video and audio recordings of children in cages wailing children has sparked anger at the US worldwide.
Shamdasani called on the US to revamp its migration policies and provide alternatives to detention including community-based options, and uphold migrants’ rights.
Federal agencies were yesterday working to set up a centralised reunification process for the remaining separated children and their families at the Port Isabel Detention Centre just north of border in Texas, said the official.
The Trump official said many of reunited families were back together after a few days of separation.
But other parents have said they do not know where their children are and were struggling to get answers.
Some mothers were deported without their children.
Meanwhile, there were further signs that the administration was dialling back its “zero-tolerance” policy, for now.
The federal public defender’s office for the region that covers cases from El Paso to San Antonio said the US Attorney’s Office would be dismissing cases in which parents were charged with illegally entering or re-entering the country and were subsequently separated from their children.
“Going forward, they will no longer bring criminal charges against a parent or parents entering the United States if they have their child with them,” wrote Maureen Scott Franco, the federal public defender for the Western District of the state of Texas, in an email that was seen by journalists.
In the Texas border city of McAllen, federal prosecutors unexpectedly did not pursue charges against 17 immigrants.
A federal prosecutor said “there was no prosecution sought” in light of Mr Trump’s executive order ending the practice of separating families.
But the president himself showed no sign of softening.
The administration is drawing up plans to house up to 20,000 migrants on US military bases, though officials gave differing accounts as to whether those beds would be for children or whole families.
The Justice Department also went to court in an attempt to overturn a decades-old settlement that limits to 20 days the amount of time migrant children can be locked up with their families.
“We have to be very, very strong on the border. If we don’t do it, you will be inundated with people and you really won’t have a country,” Trump said.
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