How evil must you be to take migrant children from their families after crossing the border and then actively work to keep them in cages, refusing to reunite them with their families?
Don’t answer that; we already know. You have to be Trump-administration-evil, which even Satan looks at and shakes his head in disbelief.
According to NBC News, after months of pleas and a federal judge tasking legal advocates with finding and reconnecting migrant families taken at the U.S. border in 2017 and 2018, the Trump administration just miraculously stumbled upon the one document that might make these advocates’ job just a bit easier: the addresses and phone numbers of those stolen from their families.
“In a federal court filing in California late Wednesday, the lawyers said Justice Department data from the Executive Office of Immigration Review, which includes information for parents and children in immigration court proceedings, was released to them last week,” NBC News reports.
Just last year, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered legal and nonprofit groups to find families of those taken by the Trump administration at the border, many of whom were children separated from their parents. Legal groups had been tasked with the heavy burden because they were told that the Trump administration had failed to keep track of those in their custody.
From NBC News:
NBC News reported last month that the parents of 666 migrant children had yet to be found by pro bono lawyers, making the path to reunification difficult for many. The filing Wednesday said some families have been identified since then, bringing the number of parents whose whereabouts are still unknown to 628.
With the new data, which lawyers said they have not had adequate time to review, the number could be reduced further.
“We have been repeatedly asking the Trump administration for any additional data they might have to help locate the families and are only finally getting these new phone numbers and addresses,” said Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project. “Unfortunately, it took the issue reaching the level of a presidential debate to move them to give us this data.”
“Everyone’s been asking whether the Trump administration has been helping to find these families. Not only have they not been helping, but they have been withholding this data forever,” Gelernt said.
Again, how evil must one be? Don’t answer that, as we already know.