Thousands of migrant children who were separated from their families under Trump-era policies have still not been reunified, according to four Mission District leaders who just returned from Central America as part of a group monitoring family reunifications.
Under a U.S. government program, some 4,000 children are eligible for reunification and only some 767 have been reunified, said the four members of Caravan for Children, which monitored the work of a presidential task force bringing children back together with their parents. There may be other children who have been reunified outside the program, and another 1,500 children were separated but are not yet eligible for reunification.
That task force was created by President Joseph R. Biden in 2021 to reunite families that were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy. Caravan for Children presented the group’s findings at Galería Studio 24 on Wednesday before some 30 guests.
In presenting their message to the community, one message was loud and clear: Families belong together.
“The word of the trip for us was ‘socialize.’ Socialize this information,” said Lariza Dugan-Cuadra, executive director of Carecen-SF, a nonprofit that works with Central American immigrants.
Dugan-Cuadra and others stressed the need to get the information out to those who need it, with the help of local organizations, including local media outlets.
Caravan for the Children’s work on the ground aimed to understand how the U.S.-based task force can reach the right people: Members of families who were separated between January 2017 and 2021 when trying to cross the U.S.-Mexico border.
This policy led to more than 5,500 children being separated from their parents who, under the policy, were denied entry to the United States and deported. Most of these families were attempting to seek asylum. Many were fleeing persecution or dire economic circumstances in their home countries, mostly in Central America.
The Caravan for the Children campaign, created in January 2021, is a partnership between multiple community volunteers and local organizations. Along with Dugan-Cuadra, three other women represented the campaign on a trip with the task force to El Salvador and Honduras last month: Ani Rivera from Galería de la Raza, and Sarah Gavigan and Vanessa Velazco, also from CARECEN SF.
They presented their work and recommendations along with Olga Talamante, formerly the director of the Chicana Latina Foundation, and Gloria Romero from Instituto de la Raza, who attended meetings with the task force via Zoom.
In February 2021, President Biden established the President’s Interagency Task Force for the Reunification of Families. This led to the creation of together.gov, or juntos.gov — a web portal where family members seeking to be reunited can register. From there, if matched, some may be eligible for temporary U.S. visas.
There are many reasons why some children may be deemed ineligible by the government, such as the separation being considered “justified,” said Talamante. Children who were accompanied by a family member who was not a parent or legal guardian would also be ineligible.
Many parents, located outside the United States, are unaware the program exists, and some live in communities that have little to no access to electricity or the internet. Others remain traumatized from the separation, and have complete mistrust in any U.S. government program. In some cases, parents have not returned to their home country — a place they were trying to flee in the first place — and the task force has trouble contacting them.
On the ground, the delegation participated in two three-hour meetings with representatives from a total of 29 different organizations, who shared local expertise and insight on how to better disseminate information on the task force.
Upon their return, the delegation provided 11 recommendations to the task force, including ways to expand the program’s eligibility to all 5,500 impacted families, improve search efforts to locate them, ensure funding for local organizations involved and provide long-term mental health services to the impacted communities.
The group said it is well aware of the trauma that separation has caused families, compounded with the trauma of fleeing their home countries. “Someone may be ready in 10 years to address the trauma that they survived as a result of zero tolerance, or in 20 years,” said Gavigan.
There was also a sense of urgency to help implement the reunification program, given the uncertainty of the task force amid the upcoming elections next year. “We saw this as being a very crucial time,” said Talamante.
The trip was also a chance for the delegation to connect with communities they belong to. For Dugan-Cuadra, who migrated to the U.S. from Nicaragua some 30 years ago, this work hits close to home. “It goes to the heart,” she said. “I’m reminded of the resilience of our community and people.”
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The “family values” GOP are hypocrites about everything, including their continued support for their leader who ripped thousands of children from the arms of their parents and then with deliberate indifference lost track of them.
Both Trump and his henchmen who did this should be locked up for this atrocious human rights violation.