New US court order raises hope hope of re-union of immigrant children, parents

A new order issued by a US court has expedited the re-union of immigrant children and their parents.

The order was issued on Thursday night after a federal judge’s ordered that the government streamline some vetting procedures for reunifying parents and children.

Usually such re-unifications take more longer and in the case of Yolany Padilla who was released from immigration custody in Seattle last week, it took her time to see her 6-year-old son, who had been taken from her at the U.S.-Mexico border two months earlier.

On an average, one has to go through fingerprint collection and analysis alone which could take 60 days, and there would also be background checks of all the adults with whom she and her son would stay. It would likely be weeks before her son could be returned to her.

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“I didn’t want to believe that could be true,” said Padilla, who comes from Honduras and is seeking asylum in the United States. “It hurt so much to even think it could be 60 days.”

But all that has changed, thanks to the new ruling and moments after seeing her son Padila said; “It’s been so long since I’ve seen him, imagine how I feel inside,” Padilla said, speaking through a translator at the airport after the reunion. “It was like my heart was going to come out of my body.”

The separations were part of President Donald Trump’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration, though some of the separated families are also asylum seekers.

That policy was abandoned in June in the wake of widespread protests.

 

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