Judge: Trump administration must release list of migrant children under 5

A federal judge has given the Trump administration until late Saturday to release a list of the roughly 100 migrant children under the age of five who were detained separately from their parents upon entering the United States.

Reuters reports that U.S. Judge Dana Sabraw also gave the government until Tuesday to explain how it plans to reunite those children with their parents.

{mosads}

“What I’m contemplating is the government provides a list to plaintiffs counsel by tomorrow 5 p.m. (PDT, midnight GMT) with the identities of the children,” Sabraw said, according to Reuters.

Attorneys representing the Trump administration responded by telling Sabraw that the government is struggling to reunite some children with parents who have already been released from detention, noting that as a result it may miss the deadline in some cases.

Sabraw declined to extend the deadline, however, and ordered the attorneys to present the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which brought a class action suit against the administration, with expectations for each child on whether the government will meet the deadline.

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said that private organizations would be eager to assist the government in reuniting the separated families.

“We have been deluged by thousands of doctors, lawyers and people who want to help,” Gelernt said after the hearing, according to Reuters. “The outpouring is incredible. Every one is feeling we should not make these children pawns.”

President Trump halted his administration’s separation of families last month via executive order after the administration faced an international outcry over the treatment of children separated from their parents due to the government’s zero tolerance immigration policy.

The administration will now allow families to be detained together, but hundreds of young children remain in detention facilities separate from their parents while the administration struggles to bring them back together.