Florida readers may be interested to learn that a U.S. district judge has asked the U.S. government to team with the American Civil Liberties Union to develop an asylum solution for migrant families who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. The request was made on Aug. 17, the day after the same judge extended a deportation freeze on families who had been recently reunited.
According to the judge, hastily deporting reunified families would deny them due process under the law, deprive migrant minors of their rights to seek asylum and go against the best interests of the American public. As a result, he asked that the government pair with the ACLU to reach an agreement over whether parents who were deported before being reunited with their children should be allowed back in the U.S. to pursue asylum claims alongside their kids. More than 2,500 children were forcibly taken from their parents at the border, and up to 366 parents were then deported without getting their kids back.
An ACLU attorney representing the migrant families said that certain deported parents should be allowed back in the U.S. to help their children apply for asylum. He also said that other parents should be permitted to return because they were wrongly told that they would be reunited with their kids if they agreed to leave the country. However, the government claims that parents waived the asylum rights of their children by signing deportation papers.
Individuals seeking asylum in the U.S. may benefit from contacting an immigration attorney for help. An attorney could help an asylum seeker file the necessary documents and represent their interests at asylum hearings.
