Family Separations at the Border: The Latest Updates

UPDATE (11:47 PM ET 6/26/18): A federal judge grants a nationwide injunction stopping the family separation policy, ordering that the Trump Administration reunite all migrant children taken from their parents. The order mandates that the Trump administration reunite migrant kids under 5 with parents in 14 days, 30 days for kids over 5.

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U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions on May 7 announced that the Trump administration would adopt a “zero tolerance” policy toward anyone caught by Border Patrol crossing into country. All migrants would be referred to the Department of Justice and prosecuted for the misdemeanor of illegal entry into the United States.

What You Need To Know:

• According to federal officials, over 2,300 children have been separated from their parents since early May and sent to government custody or foster care.
• Workers in the facilities housing children share the stories of children crying themselves to sleep because they don’t know where their parents are.  A Honduran man killed himself in May in his detention cell after his child was taken from him.
• On June 20, President Trump signed an executive order directing the administration to keep children with their parents in detention while their cases work their way through the court system.
• Customs and Border Protection acknowledged June 25th that the government is abandoning the administration’s zero-tolerance policy for migrants crossing the border illegally.
• The Department of Homeland Security states it has reunited 522 children with their parents, but more than 2,000 kids are still in their care in detention centers across the country.
• While legislators have developed different ideas to end the crisis, advocates have called for a day of nationwide protests on June 30.
• 17 states and the District of Columbia have sued President Trump to force the administration to reunite migrant families separated by the administration’s zero-tolerance policy.

Live coverage of the immigration crisis occurs below, with updates ongoing.