MCALLEN, Texas — Protests and rallies focused around the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border are scheduled this weekend, and more than two dozen congressional Democrats planned to visit detention facilities in Texas.
More than 2,300 children were taken from their families in recent weeks under a Trump administration “zero tolerance” policy in which people entering the U.S. illegally face being prosecuted. Parents and children were being detained separately. But after public outcry, President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered that they be brought back together.
Confusion has ensued, with parents left searching for their children. A senior administration official told CBS News that as of Friday night, about 500 children in custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection were reunited with their parents. That leaves hundreds more who are still being held in facilities managed by the Department of Health and Human Services, which has formed a task force aimed at reuniting those children with their parents.
There are signs of progress, CBS News’ Weija Jiang reported from the White House Saturday morning. But for all the children who remain separated from their families, there is no clear timeline for their reunion.
Events planned this weekend include a rally Saturday in Fort Worth, where the Texas Democratic Convention is being held, and a protest in Homestead, Florida.
The Democratic lawmakers plan to visit detention facilities in McAllen and Los Fresnos. About a dozen people demonstrated ahead of the delegation’s arrival in McAllen wearing white T-shirts that said, “I want my mommy.”
Tens of thousands of immigrants traveling with their families have been caught on the southwest border in recent years, many fleeing gang violence in Central America. About 9,000 such family units have been caught in each of the last three months, according to U.S. border authorities.
The Trump administration announced plans in April to prosecute all immigrants caught along the southwest border with illegally entering the country. Parents were jailed and children taken to government-contracted shelters.
Now, the administration says it will continue with prosecutions and seek to detain families together during their immigration proceedings.
Immigration officials have said they could seek up to 15,000 beds in family detention facilities, and the Pentagon is drawing up plans to house as many as 20,000 unaccompanied immigrant children on military bases.
A sign welcomes people to the United States in the Texan city of Brownsville which has become dependent on the daily crossing into and out of Mexico on June 23, 2018 in Brownsville, Texas.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Those proposals have also sparked an outcry from women’s and children’s advocates who say children don’t belong in jail. They want minors to remain protected by a decades-old settlement governing the detention of immigrant children caught on the border. Under the agreement, children must be placed in age-appropriate facilities and released as quickly as possible.
The Trump administration is seeking changes to the settlement in federal court to try to deter more families from making the trip.
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