Feds say 34 immigrant children to be reunited with parents; no timetable for others

Daniel Gonzalez | The Republic | azcentral.com

Show Caption Hide Caption Data from DNA tests to reunite immigrant families may be misused The plan to use DNA tests to reunite immigrant children with their parents is sparking concern over how the data might also be used.

PHOENIX — Federal officials said 34 young children taken from parents at the border under a “zero tolerance” policy will be reunited with parents Tuesday, but dozens of others will not be reunited in time to comply with a court deadline.

The 34 children all under the age of 5 "are expected to be reunited or are being reunited today," Chris Meekins, chief of staff of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, said during a conference call with reporters Tuesday.

Another four young children were reunited with parents prior to the July 10 deadline, Meekins said.

A federal judge in San Diego has ordered the government to reunite all of the 100 children under 5 taken from parents at the border by Tuesday. In all, a total of 38 young children will be reunited by the end of Tuesday, Meekins said.

More: Judge will not extend deadlines for Trump administration to reunite families

More: Reunited: 3 immigrant sons meet parents after 2-month separation

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the agency had moved parents to staging areas to be reunited with their children Tuesday and that most were being released with GPS ankle monitoring bracelets to ensure they complied with requirements to report for immigration court hearings. On Tuesday morning, vans were seen shuttling in and out of child shelters in Phoenix and a nearby ICE office.

Meekins said Health and Human Services was working to comply with the court order to quickly reunite children separated from parents at the border.

But he said the agency's main priority was ensuring the safety of the children. He said separated children would not be reunited until officials had a chance to conduct criminal background checks on parents as well as using DNA testing and other means to verify that people claiming to be parents were indeed the children's parents.

"HHS has been executing a plan with our inter-agency partners to safely and expeditiously reunite children with their verified parents in accordance with the court order," Meekins said. "Let me be clear, HHS could have transferred every child out of (the agency's) care to a parent who is in DHS custody today, if we did not take into account child safety or whether the adult is actually the parent."

The latest on immigrant families reuniting in Phoenix Republic reporter Kaila White reports July 10, 2018, from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Phoenix.

As an example, he said three people claiming to be parents admitted they were not the parents when officials began to swab them for DNA testing, Meekins said.

“That means the child would have been reunited with parents who was not their parent if we had not done our due diligence. It’s possible these adults were human traffickers or were involved in bundling these children," he said. "That is why we have a process in place to verify their parents."

DNA testing showed an additional three people were not the biological parents of the child they claimed was theirs.

Also, criminal background checks revealed eight people claiming to be parents had "serious issues" that prevented officials from reuniting them with their children, Meekins said, including "a rapist, a kidnapper, a child abuser and someone charged with murder in their home nation."

Meekins did not give a timetable for when all of the approximately 100 children under 5 separated from parents at the border would be reunited with parents.

The federal judge had given the Department and Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services until July 10 to reunite all children under 5 with their parents and until July 26 to reunite all children five and older.

About 3,000 children were separated from their parents under the zero-tolerance policy implemented by the Trump administration in early May to crack down on parents crossing the border illegally accompanied by their children, many of them seeking asylum in the U.S. after fleeing poverty, violence and political turmoil in Central America.

As of Tuesday, a total of 51 children were eligible for reunification with parents currently in ICE detention, Meekins said.

Sixteen parents have cleared criminal background checks but officials were still going through the process of verifying their parentage, Meekins said.

Meekins said "legitimate logistical impediments" prevented HHS from reunifying an additional 20 children eligible for reunification, including 12 whose parents had been removed from the U.S.