DHS revealed today in a press release that almost half of the children in their detention that are five years old and younger cannot be reunited with their parents:
There are 103 children under age 5 covered by the court case. Of the 103 children:
- 57 children have been reunified as of 7 a.m. EST on July 12.
- 46 children were acknowledged by the court to be ineligible for reunification or determined by HHS, DHS, and DOJ to be ineligible under court-approved criteria. Of these 46:
- 22 children have been found ineligible due to safety concerns posed by the adults in question:
- 1 adult is being treated for a communicable disease.
- 1 adult planned to house the child with an adult charged with sexually abusing a child.
- 1 adult was alleged to have abused the child.
- 1 adult had a falsified birth certificate (parentage is being examined).
- 7 adults were determined not to be a parent.
- 11 adults have a serious criminal history (charges or convictions for child cruelty, kidnapping, murder, human smuggling, domestic violence, etc.).
- 24 children are not currently eligible for reunification due to circumstances of the adults in question:
- 12 adults have been deported and are being contacted.
- 9 adults are in custody of the U.S. Marshals Service for other offenses.
- 2 adults are in custody of state jails for other offenses.
- 1 adult’s location has been unknown for over a year
This just goes to show that in many cases separating these children from their ‘parents’ was the responsible thing to do, just as DHS has been saying all along.
Of course some of it had to do with the 1997 settlement, as you well know. But clearly other cases of separation were legitimate and I would never expect a reunification when the child’s life is in danger.
It should also be pointed out that DHS has reunified 57 of the 103 children as of today.