Officials: Some separated children housed in WC reuniting with families

<p>Thursday was the deadline for the government to reunite immigrant families who were separated at the border.</p>

News 12 Staff

Jul 26, 2018, 4:22 PM

Updated 2,094 days ago

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Thursday was the deadline for the government to reunite immigrant families who were separated at the border.
There are four Westchester-based housing facilities where migrant children have been held since President Donald Trump's zero tolerance policy was announced back in April.
Officials from two of those housing facilities say families pulled apart at the U.S. border are reuniting.
A total of 20 of the South American immigrants, ages 12 to 17, have been staying at Rising Ground in Yonkers, and around another 20 at Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry.
News 12 doesn’t know how many children were at Lincoln Hall in Somers or Abbott House in Irvington, but spokespeople there tell News 12 reunification is underway.
“The administration is complying with family reunification only because a federal district judge ordered them to do so,” says Rep. Nita Lowey.

Lowey says despite Thursday's deadline to reunify, over 900 parents nationwide won't be with their children because they've already been or will be deported.
To find out how many children have been reunited with their families, News 12 tried reaching out to the housing facilities in Westchester but were referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C.

On the HHS website, the agency states the administration is following a court order to reunify families in a responsible manner.
Rep. Lowey says reunification isn't the only solution.

“The overwhelming majority of parents and children at the border are seeking asylum and other terms of protection.  We should be connecting them to legal services, housing, to other sources of information,” says Lowey.

 


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