The Department of Homeland Security is considering doing away with a policy that allows women and children who arrive at the southern border to be kept together during initial immigration processing, according to a report published Friday evening.
The change could deter some mothers from traveling to the U.S. if it meant being separated from their children in the U.S.
Current policy maintains that if a woman and child are apprehended after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally or surrender themselves to border agents at a checkpoint, they can remain together as they contest deportation or apply for asylum.
As a result of the continued increase in the number of family units and unaccompanied minors flooding the border in recent years, immigration judges are inundated with cases, putting the majority of court dates years into the future. Mothers and children are then released and told to show up for their immigration hearing years from now, though 90 percent of minors did not show up, according to a 2014 study.
If the policy is implemented, parents would be kept in federal custody and children would be put into protective custody through the Department of Health and Human Services, in the “least restrictive setting” until a U.S. relative or state-sponsored guardian claims them, according to Reuters.
The policy is similar to President Trump’s other actions to end “catch and release,” a term for the Obama administration’s apprehending illegal immigrants and then turning them loose inside the country.
