Tucson federal judges appear to be striking back against the practice of the Trump administration to separate immigrant parents from their children after illegally crossing the border into the US. In more than two dozen recent cases in Tucson, judges have ordered children, some of whom were seven years of age, to be returned to their parents following their release from custody, according to US District Court records.
The recommendations for the reunion from the magistrate judges follow the zero-tolerance policy employed by the Trump administration, in which anyone caught on the border, including parents, are referred for prosecution by Border Patrol. The Tucson Sector of Border Patrol says that parents and children who are illegally crossing the US border close to Lukeville in Southern Arizona either flag down their agents or find some other way to voluntarily surrender.
Kirstjen Nielsen, the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, told reporters while on a trip to Nogales on Thursday that the critics want to see families cross the border to make sure that they will receive special treatment.
But, the current deterrence policy may be moving more immigrant traffic toward ports of entry, where prosecution of parents cannot take place because it is not illegal to seek asylum there. Those families will either be detained or released with ankle monitoring bracelets and notices to appear before immigration officers.