SAN DIEGO, Calif. – A federal court recently found the Trump administration again in violation of the Family Separation Settlement Agreement, which originated from a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union.
The agreement stemmed from ACLU litigation opposing what it described as “violations of the Trump administration’s illegal zero-tolerance practice of separating families at the border and on behalf of the traumatized children and parents who were forcibly torn apart from each other,” according to a press release from the ACLU.
A motion filed in Ms. L. v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated, “The settlement provides that the Program must provide assistance . . . short of full representation, including legal advice, counseling, and consultation concerning immigration relief; assistance with preparing applications for relief, and Friend of the Court services.”
The ACLU said the breach concerned “the administration’s sudden termination of two contracts guaranteeing legal and social services to clients covered in a 2023 agreement.”
“Late yesterday, Judge Dana Sabraw rejected the administration’s request to evade that ruling, and also found a second major breach by the government when it abruptly terminated its contract with Seneca Family of Agencies, which provides social services to the separated families, without securing any replacement contract,” the ACLU added.
Judge Sabraw also wrote, “The Trump administration forced the separation of thousands of immigrant parents from their children, many of whom have yet to be reunified, and it caused profound, devastating, and lasting damage to those families.”
Sam Ribakoff from Courthouse News Service reported, “The Acacia Center for Justice was handling such legal support services until Trump, in his second term, cut off funding for it and referred class members to seek legal advice from a list of pro bono organizations.”
Attorney Lee Gelernt of the ACLU said, “Rather than acknowledge the horrible abuses inflicted by the family separation policy, the Trump administration is doing everything it can to avoid its responsibilities under the settlement.”
“As the government fights the provisions of the settlement, thousands of people who are plaintiffs, and their relatives, are in jeopardy of missing a September deadline to apply for asylum, meaning they’re also in danger of being detained and deported,” Gelernt added, as reported by Courthouse News Service.
The U.S. Department of Justice Archives cited a statement from Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta: “The separation of families at our southern border was a betrayal of our nation’s values.” She added, “By providing services to these families and implementing policies to prevent future separations, today’s agreement addresses the impacts of those separations and helps ensure that nothing like this happens again.”
Regarding the origin of the case, the DOJ Archives stated, “On Feb. 26, 2018, a plaintiff identified as ‘Ms. L’ filed a complaint in the Southern District of California alleging she had been unlawfully separated from her child.”
Following the complaint, the DOJ Archives noted, “On June 26, 2018, the district court certified a class of separated parents and issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting future separations except in certain specified circumstances. The court also required the reunification of families previously separated.”
From a task force working to reunify families, the DOJ Archives reported, “The task force has also identified more than 290 U.S. citizen children who were separated from their parents during the relevant time frame, is working to confirm that they have been reunified with their families, and will offer them services to support their reunification.”
Speaking to the impact of the loss of legal services, Alex Riggins of The San Diego Union-Tribune quoted Sara Van Hofwegen, a managing director at Acacia: “They had the rug pulled out from under them, and the government is the entity that harmed them, but now they’re supposed to quit the process they were in the middle of, go to the government and trust the government will figure out a new plan for them.”
