WASHINGTON — Dozens of children separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border have been placed in facilities in Maryland and Virginia in recent weeks, an advocate said, adding that it’s not clear what immediate effect President Donald Trump’s reversal Wednesday on the issue will have on them.
“It’s unclear what this policy is going to do,” said Karine Noncent, managing attorney for the Detained Children’s Program at the Capital Area Immigrants Rights Coalition. “What I know is the children we are dealing with are still struggling to connect with their parents and struggling to figure out what the next step is for them.”
Noncent was reacting to the news that Trump had signed an executive order ending family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border. The president took the action after public outcry over what his Department of Justice referred to as a “zero-tolerance” policy on immigration.
Noncent said some of the children are 3 years old. “We’ve seen a mix of 3-year-olds, 5-year-olds, 7-year-olds and 9-year-olds,” she said.
All have been profoundly affected by the act of being taken from their parents. Some cry out for their parents, she said, while others shut down and don’t speak at all. “Because they just can’t deal with the change and having to adjust to a new place, speaking to people they do not know, in a language they do not understand,” she said.
Trump’s executive order, Noncent said, doesn’t change what she called the reality of the challenge facing the United States: “The immigration system is broken. It has been broken, and even with this reversal of policy, there will still be a lot of work to be done.”
