The US government, through its Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, has announced that it is reuniting 100 families who were separated while crossing the border illegally from Mexico under the tenure of former President Donald Trump. They will be able to “live and work in the United States”.
The United States has reunited 100 families of migrants who had been separated during their illegal border crossing from Mexico under the tenure of former President Donald Trump, the US government announced Thursday evening. Our teams “reunited this week 100 families separated under the cruel policies of the previous administration,” said Secretary of Homeland Security (DHS) Alejandro Mayorkas.
345 children still separated from their families
He said in another tweet that these families were granted the opportunity to “live and work in the United States” on a humanitarian basis. Trump’s 2018 directives under a “zero tolerance” policy were suspended after three months in the face of public outcry.
The services of Alejandro Mayorkas, in collaboration with other partners, were thus able to identify and register 345 other children still separated from their families. Under the Trump administration, at least 4,000 minors were separated from their families at the Mexican border, according to Security Department figures and 5,500 according to court documents. During his electoral campaign, Democratic President Joe Biden had promised a “just and humane” immigration policy, leading him last January to break with the policies of his Republican predecessor.
Potential financial compensation in the future
The Biden administration has signaled its intention to tackle “the root causes” of immigration: extreme poverty, violence, corruption and climate change. Last week, the United States abandoned negotiations for financial compensation for separated families who took legal action. The government has not reached any agreement with the lawyers of the families while leaving a door open to this possibility for the future. Arrests of undocumented migrants at the southern border of the United States have reached record highs in recent years.