McALLEN, Texas (Border Report) — Tuesday is the last day for the public to weigh in on ways the federal government can avoid future family separations at the border.
The Department of Homeland Security in late 2021 asked for ways the agency can prevent migrant families from being separated. Comments are being accepted by the Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families and can be submitted here.
The original deadline was Jan. 10, but that has been extended to midnight Tuesday night, Jennifer Nagda policy director for the nonprofit Young Center for Immigrant Childrens’ Rights, told Border Report on Tuesday.
DHS in a Dec. 10 posting in the Federal Register said the Biden administration wanted to “help protect against the prior administration’s practice of intentionally separating families.”
The request came as DHS was being forced by a court order to reimplement the “Remain in Mexico” or Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, which forces selected asylum-seekers to wait in Mexico during their U.S. immigration proceedings. These proceedings often take years.
MPP was restarted in early December in San Diego and El Paso. The controversial program began in South Texas last week.
More than 3,000 children were separated from their families at the US-Mexico border under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. Hundreds remain separated and the Biden administration has been trying to find ways to reunite the families and prevent future separations through the task force.
Nagda urges as many people as possible to give voice to this issue.
“The task force created by this administration is writing its own report on what it has done, what it may do and what options may exist for ending family separations and they will be considering public feedback as they write their own report and this is the opportunity to provide feedback, and in particular what the administration needs to do to provide a remedy for families who were separated starting in the prior administration and continuing on to today,” Nagda said.
Sandra Sanchez can be reached at ssanchez@borderreport.com .
