On Saturday, federal officials released their plan to reunite immigrant minors with their parents in a detention center close to Brownsville, Texas. How much longer the families will have to wait for their reunion remains unclear. The Department of Homeland Security statement suggests that the process may have to wait until the deportation proceedings against the parents are complete.
The policy means that a parent facing deportation from the US will have to request that their child is removed along with them. It is uncertain how many parents have already chosen to leave their children behind in the hope of protecting them from the violence in their countries of origin, or whether some parents were even aware of how to be reunited with their children.
The Port Isabel Processing Center has been dedicated as the primary center for family reunification and removal for detained adults, according to the fact sheet on family reunification and the zero-tolerance policy sent out by the Department of Homeland Security. The plan establishes a process to ensure that family members are aware of the whereabouts of their children and kept in regular communication until they can be reunited, according to a statement.
The announcement followed a heated debate on immigration, which has become more emotional since the separation of thousands of immigrant children from their parents, due to the zero-tolerance policy. President Donald Trump reversed the policy for separation last week.