Immigrant families separated under Trump continue to feel the impact and fear his return to office

WASHINGTON – Sixteen-year-old Billy’s friends at his rural southern high school don’t know that he was one of thousands of children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border as part of then-President Donald Trump’s zero-tolerance immigration policy.

At school, where he plays soccer and soccer, Billy doesn’t talk about what he went through – that six years ago his father was told that Billy was up for adoption and he feared he would never see his son again.

With the United States on on the threshold of the elections it could put Trump back in office, Billy wants people to know that what happened to him and several thousand other children still resonates today. Some families have not been reunited, and many in the U.S. are on temporary status and fear a victorious Trump will lead promised mass deportations.

“It was a very painful thing that happened to us,” said Billy, who was 9 years old at the time. He did not want his full name or state of residence given for fear it would jeopardize his family’s asylum bid.

Trump has achieved his views on immigration central to his campaignaccusing the Biden administration and Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, of failing to secure the southern border. Harris didn’t make immigration a major campaign issue, but he did bring up Trump zero tolerance policyone of his most controversial immigration actions as president.

The Trump administration has sought to criminally prosecute all adults who cross the border illegally. The parents were separated from the children, who were sent to shelters throughout the country.

Trump and his campaign have not said specifically whether he will resume the practice if he wins on November 5. He has defended this before, including: claiming without evidence during the trial Interview with Univision last year that it “stopped hundreds of thousands of people from coming.”

“President Trump will restore his effective immigration policy, implement brand new repressive measures that will send shockwaves through every smuggler in the world, and marshal all the federal and state powers necessary to carry out the largest deportation operation of illegal criminals, drug dealers and human traffickers in American history.” – said Karoline Leavitt, press secretary of the Trump campaign.

This month, Harris’ campaign hosted an event with separated children to draw attention to Trump’s policies.

Billy, who spoke at the event, is part of a group of children who share their stories in short videos on social media to highlight the zero-tolerance policy. Billy and his father also visited lawmakers in Washington.

Billy told the Associated Press that while he doesn’t usually talk about his experiences, he and others will “make sure we raise our voices and share our stories” to ensure something like this never happens again.

Most families separated many years ago find themselves in legal limbo and their immigration status is in doubt. Under the agreement between families and the Biden administration announced last year, families have two years to apply for asylum under a more favorable procedure.

As the election approaches, supporters have heard from separated families expressing concerns that Trump, if elected, will follow through on his promises to deport millions of people.

“The families we serve are scared and have many questions about what a new Trump administration would mean for them,” said Anilú Chadwick Soltes, pro bono director of Together & Free, an organization founded in 2018 in response to the zero-tolerance policy. The group works for separated families.

The The 2023 settlement made future administrations impossible from using family separation as a broad-based policy by 2031. However, supporters have doubts.

Christie Turner-Herbas, senior adviser at Kids in Need of Defense, said she worries about exceptions to the policy being used and says political will is needed to enforce it.

Trump administration policy moved away from the general practice of keeping families and children together when they arrive at the southern border.

The aim was to deter citizens by criminally prosecuting anyone who crossed the border. In the case of families, the parents were prosecuted. Children who could not be kept in custody were treated as unaccompanied minors and transferred to shelters.

After scream– Trump stated on June 20, 2018 that he did ending the policy. Six days later, the judge ordered the government reunite families, thousands of whom have been separated. The agencies didn’t have their computer systems properly connected and that’s why he did it it is difficult to reunite families. Many parents were deported, which made matters even more complicated.

When Democrat Joe Biden became president, he created a family reunification task force. Building on the efforts of groups that have sued the Trump administration, identified task force approximately 5,000 children were separated and approximately 1,400 have not been confirmed to have been returned to their families.

Some are in progress. Others are believed to have reunited in the U.S. but are not coming forward, possibly for fear of government action. For others, no valid contact information exists, so the search continues.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which brought the lawsuit against the Trump administration that helped end family separations, estimates the number of separated children at 5,500.

Lee Gelernt, lead attorney for the lawsuit, said the ACLU estimates as many as 1,000 families are still dead.

“Some young children now spend almost their entire lives without their parents,” he said.

The task force maintains a website where families can register for reunification and is working with the International Organization for Migration to help these families, such as obtaining a passport to come to the US. The director of the task force went to the families’ home countries to make radio announcements looking for parents.

Support groups also played a key role.

Justice in Motion, which works with attorneys in Mexico and Central America to find parents, uses the last known address and talks to neighbors, local businesses, hospitals, schools – anyone who may know the person’s whereabouts.

But they are struggling with poor record keeping that is now out of date, said Nan Schivone, the organization’s legal director.

Families and separated children are struggling with precipitation.

In the case of 22-year-old Efrain, there was a sense of guilt. Efrain said his father didn’t want to bring him to the United States in 2018, but he insisted. When they were finally separated, Efrain wondered if it wouldn’t be better if his father was alone.

His father was sent back to Guatemala. Efrain, who did not want his full name used for fear of repercussions, was placed in a shelter for unaccompanied children for about five months.

His father has diabetes and Efrain is worried about his health. When they managed to video call after Efrain left the shelter, he noticed how much weight his father had lost.

Three years later, they met again at the Atlanta airport. Since then, Efrain says he has been trying to make up for lost time. He says he struggles with anxiety and loneliness, echoing the isolation he felt after being separated from his father.

“I feel like I’m alone in a locked room,” he said in Spanish.

Meanwhile, Billy’s father still cries when he talks about what he and his son went through years later. He believes that people have forgotten what happened and the trauma the families experienced.

Billy says he found meaning in sharing what he experienced: “I know my story is powerful.”

___

Associated Press reporter Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, contributed to this report.