Latest Update On The Status Of The Still NOT Reunified Border Families...

A two-hour long status hearing will occur before the very able Judge Sabraw in San Diego later this afternoon local time, on these matters -- but it is hard to overestimate the chaos and suffering Donald Trump (in clear violation of US law, under Flores) intentionally inflicted on over 5,000 people (many of them under the age of 7) who had appeared at our door, and shore, simply seeking protection from credible threats of political danger and/or death, in their home nation(s).

The full 13 pager is here, as an overnight PDF -- but I'll quote the below to show how malevolent the ICE and INS agents were -- in apparently intentionally refusing to collect even basic contact data to facilitate reunification, at the time of the kidnappings and incarcerations:

. . . .The Steering Committee has placed calls to all parents for whom it has phone numbers -- 371 out of the 412 -- and has successfully spoken to 231 (225 through phone calls, six reached by NGO partners in Central America). . . .

On August 16, the Government provided a list of 236 children and their associated attorneys. This list did not include the names, locations, or contact information for their parents, so we have been working to correlate this information with the information provided concerning parents. Of these 236 children, 73 were not included on the previous two lists of children with removed parents provided by the Government on August 7 and 10, and the Steering Committee has asked for clarification in this regard. For the remaining children -- for whom the parents are understood to be removed -- the Steering Committee has reached out to all of the children’s attorneys and is awaiting confirmation of the children’s wishes. To identify the legal representatives of the 249 children for whom the Government has not provided information, the Steering Committee has worked with the Vera Institute of Justice to determine the designated legal service providers for all ORR shelters, and has reached out to all of these providers to determine which children they represent. Within the coming days, the Steering Committee will identify children who do not appear to be represented and will work with Vera to secure counsel for them.

For parents for whom the Government has not yet provided phone numbers (41), or for whom the Steering Committee has determined the numbers to be inoperative or ineffective (38), Steering Committee member Justice in Motion is currently engaged in on-the-ground efforts in Honduras and Guatemala to locate parents. Justice in Motion representatives who speak indigenous languages have obtained birth certificates of parents to determine their locations and have travelled to remote villages to seek to interview the parents in person. These efforts have reached six parents and will continue, supported by Steering Committee member KIND’s local partners in Central America and other NGO partners.

Finally, in communicating with removed parents, the Steering Committee has indications that some parents may have been coerced or misled by U.S. government actions that deprived the parents of their right to seek asylum. These incidents include parents who were told that they needed to accept removal and not pursue asylum in order to be reunited with their children, and parents who were required to sign documents they did not understand, in languages they do not speak, that had the effect of waiving their right to seek asylum. The Steering Committee is further investigating these cases. . . .

We cannot let the relentless lunacy of the new cycles describing the flaming clown car of the Trump Administration, presently sailing over a cliff in DC -- eclipse the fact that this series of crimes against humanity were driven by Donald Trump's express and unlawful orders.

He is. . . a monster. I'm in federal court again today, on a pro bono Guatemalan case of my own. Onward.

And, by commenter request: some good karma Friday. . . music:



नमस्ते