ACLU settlement brings aid, asylum track for migrants separated by Trump's 'zero tolerance' policy
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Migrant families separated under the Trump administration’s so-called "zero-tolerance policy" will receive support from the U.S. government under a new settlement between the Biden administration and the American Civil Liberties Union.
Enacted in the spring of 2018, the policy made it a criminal offense to cross the border without permission. It gave border officers the ability to refer adults for prosecution and send their children to separate holding facilities. Thousands of children were separated from their parents as a result, many of whom weren’t able to be located even months later.
The new agreement will help fund things like reunification efforts, medical bills, and housing for reunited families in the U.S. Parents also have access to work permits and legal services, and they can apply for asylum.
The ACLU filed suit in 2018 to stop the policy and reunite families. Lee Gelernt, ACLU’s lead attorney in the case, says they’ve been in negotiations with the Biden administration for more than two years now. Other border policies — like the pandemic-era Title 42 or the Trump-era Migrant Protection Protocols — have also resulted in families getting separated, but Gelernt says the zero tolerance policy was different.
“The zero tolerance policy is the cruelest things I’ve seen in my more than three decades working on these issues at the ACLU,” he said. “Immigration often results in families being separated indirectly as a collateral effect — those are difficult issues, but they are not at the same nature as the deliberate, cruel, prolonged separations of zero tolerance. That’s what this settlement focuses on.”
The deal also bars the U.S. government from re-enacting the zero tolerance policy for the next eight years.
The Biden administration’s task force has reunited an estimated 800 children with their parents so far. The ACLU estimates up to 1000 children are still separated and have been for years. Gelernt says the settlement ensures the U.S. government will help find the remaining families and help with reunification efforts.
“That’s critical, because families don’t have the funds to get to the United States, up until the [Biden administration's] task force, we had been using private funds to get these families to the United States,” Gelernt said.
The ACLU’s suit currently includes some 3,900 children, but that number is likely to increase as additional eligible families are identified — including families with U.S. citizen children, and those separated during a pilot project that took place prior to policy’s official enactment.
The settlement has been signed and is due to come before a judge for approval in December.
