SAN DIEGO (AP) — A judge has ruled that the federal government must return three families negatively impacted by the Trump administration’s policy of separating parents from their children at the border. This decision was made after finding that the deportations in recent months were based on 'lies, deception and coercion.'
Issued on Thursday, the court order stated that these families should have been allowed to remain in the United States under a legal settlement regarding the Trump administration's separation of roughly 6,000 children from their parents in 2018. Each mother had permission to stay in the U.S. until 2027 under humanitarian parole.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ordered that the government must also pay for their travel expenses back to the United States.
One of the mothers, along with her three children—one of whom is a 6-year-old U.S. citizen—was deported to Honduras last July. She explained in court that repeated check-ins with ICE caused her to lose her job. Sabraw rejected the government’s claim that the family left the U.S. voluntarily, noting her assertion that ICE officers pressured her into signing an agreement for their departure, which she resisted.
According to court documents, the deportation process treated the mother and her children harshly. 'They took me and my children to a motel and removed my ankle monitor. They detained us for three days and then removed us to Honduras,' she recounted.
Two other unnamed families shared similar experiences. 'Each of the removals was unlawful, and absent the removals, these families would still be in the United States and have access to the benefits and resources they are entitled to,' stated Sabraw, appointed by President George W. Bush.
Lee Gelernt, an attorney representing the families at the American Civil Liberties Union, welcomed the decision as a necessary acknowledgment of the injustices and cruelty of the initial separation policies, noting that the court ordered their return at government expense.
The Homeland Security and Justice departments did not provide immediate comments on the matter. The Trump administration's 'zero-tolerance' policy led to families being separated for criminal prosecutions of illegal border crossings. Sabraw had ordered an end to these separations in June 2018 when Trump halted them due to significant international backlash. The legal settlement prohibits such separations until 2031.
