translated from Spanish: US: Judge values case to limit border separations

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. federal judge said Friday that he was having trouble with a petition to define exactly what justifies the separation of migrant minors from their parents at the border, following allegations that Donald Trump’s administration abused its power p divide families under specific circumstances as a criminal record or doubts about whether an adult was actually the father of a minor. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleged that the government has been separating families on dubious charges and misdemeanors such as traffic violations. In a court document, she reported that a father was set aside for property damage worth $5, and a one-year-old was separated after an official criticized her father for letting her sleep in a wet diaper.

Scott Stewart, a Justice Department attorney, acknowledged some mistakes but added that the government has a good system. District Judge Dana Sabraw noted that this is a “thorny affair” and did not deliver an immediate verdict on the ACLU’s request for intervention after a two-hour hearing, which is unusually long for him. According to the magistrate, a person convicted of assault with a lethal weapon may be the “most loving, protective father” and pose no danger to the child, but he is probably unfit to be in a detention centre for migrant families.” This is a unique context,” he said. The government separated 955 children from their parents since June 26, 2018, when Sabraw suspended the practice except for specific exceptions, and on July 20, 2019. The executive highlighted that this represents a small percentage among the more than 500,000 arrests and arrests of people who crossed the Mexican border as a family and illegally during this period, suggesting restraint. A two-page memo issued a day after Sabraw’s ruling in 2018 and ordered by Kevin McAleenan _ who then served as commissioner of Customs and Border Protection and is now Acting National Security Secretary _ describes the criteria for family separations, including one parent being convicted of a felony or “violent misdemeanor,” has a contagious illness or poses “a danger to the child.” Border patrol troops in the Rio Bravo Valley sector in Texas, the busiest illegal crossing, separate families if one of the parents has a conviction for crimes such as assault, assault, robbery, resistance to authority, hit-and-run or conduct disorderly down, he explained last week in a court document lloyd Easterling, who oversees prosecutions and prosecutions in the region. “Simple thefts,” fraud, minor traffic and drug trafficking offenses, and drunk driving without aggravating factors often do not lead to divisions. Accusations about criminal records or gang affiliations in other countries are more difficult to prove, but biometric checks and photographic comparisons often provide answers, Easterling said.The parties discussed the generalization of the use of rapid AND tests to adults suspected of lying about their kinship with a minor. The government argues that increasing the use of such tests, which yield scan slates in about 90 minutes and has been tested across the entire border with Mexico, could pose financial and logistical obstacles.

Original source in Spanish