U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw recently issued a ruling that bars the reinstatement of a controversial family separation policy initially enacted and later revoked by former President Donald Trump. As reported by the Associated Press, this decision imposes an eight-year minimum restriction on separating migrant families at the southern U.S. border.
The settlement, brokered between the United States Justice Department and families represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, lacks financial compensation for the affected families. Nevertheless, it introduces potential benefits for those previously separated.
These benefits, detailed by the AP, include the opportunity for temporary legal status for up to three years through a policy referred to as “humanitarian parole,” family reunification funded by the U.S. government, one year of housing, three years of counseling, and legal assistance for immigration court proceedings.
The policy was recently defended by ex-President Trump.
“When you hear that you’re going to be separated from your family, you don’t eat. When you think you’re going to come into the United States with your family, you come,” Trump said. “It stopped people from coming by the hundreds of thousands because when they hear family separation, they say, well, we better not go. And they didn’t go.”
Trump also attributed the policy’s origins to the Obama administration. “You know, Obama did it and Obama is the one that built the cells. Remember, they said, oh, Trump is building cells, cells. And then somebody, some wonderful person said, no, these were built by Obama because they had pictures of it from like 2014 or something. These were built by Obama, the Obama administration,” he claimed.
