Trump administration fails to meet deadline to reunite migrant children with their parents

'My 5-yr-old client can’t tell me what country she is from'

Crowds march past the White House to protest against the separation of immigrant children from their parents (AP)

Just over half of the 100 migrant children that a US court ruled should be released from detention centres and reunited with their parents will be able to do so, a US government lawyer has confirmed.

At least 54 children under the age of 5 would join their parents by the court-ordered deadline of 11 July, Justice Department attorney Sarah Fabian told a San Diego court.

They are among more than 2,300 children who were separated from their parents by border guards before President Donald Trump rowed back on the policy last month amid an international outcry. Last week, US Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said there were "under 3,000" separated children in all.

Ms Fabian said that many of the parents being held in custody are being taken to undisclosed locations near the shelters where their children are housed prior to their release.

In their parents absence, due to their ongoing detention, lawyers have said migrant toddlers appeared in court alone and have been seen clambering on the desks during heating.

“My 5-yr-old client can’t tell me what country she is from,” Laura Barrera, an immigration advocate, tweeted. “We prepare her case by drawing pictures with crayons of the gang members that would wait outside her school. Sometimes she wants to draw ice cream cones and hearts instead. She is in deportation proceedings alone."

Meanwhile, a federal judge in Los Angeles rejected the Trump administration's efforts to allow the long-term detention of migrant, calling it a "cynical attempt to undo a longstanding court settlement" and shift immigration policy making to the courts.

US District Judge Dolly Gee said the government had failed to present new evidence to support revising a court order that limits the detention of children who crossed the border illegally.

Last month, Mr Trump said: “We cannot allow all of these people to invade our Country. When somebody comes in, we must immediately, with no Judges or Court Cases, bring them back from where they came. Our system is a mockery to good immigration policy and Law and Order. Most children come without parents…”

Seemingly on Mr Trump’s orders, the Department of Justice asked Ms Gee to alter a 1997 settlement, which provides the framework for how to handle detained immigrant children, so it could detain families together for longer periods.

Three years ago, Ms Gee rejected a similar effort by the Obama administration.

Child migrants, the families of whom say they have fled poverty and gang violence in Central America, can only be detained for 20 days.

Devin O'Malley, a Justice Department spokesman, said the department disagreed with Ms Gee's ruling and that it would continue to review it.

Last week, the government announced that 16 children have not yet been matched to parents; 19 parents have already been released into the US; 46 parents are being held in custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and two parents have been judged unfit for release

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said that after viewing a list of the 102 children under the age of five in the government's care, "it appears likely that less than half will be reunited" by the 10 July deadline.

Abril Valdez of the ACLU of Michigan said the government was "vague" on the time and place of the reunifications that could come Tuesday for two Honduran men he represents.

Their three-year-old sons were in temporary foster care in Grand Rapids while they were in a jail in Battle Creek.

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement has three family detention centres with room for about 3,000 people in all, and the places are already at or near capacity.

The Trump administration is trying to line up thousands of more beds at military bases.

Disagreements remain on DNA testing on parents and children, with the government saying it should be the general rule and the ACLU saying it should be done only when no other evidence is available to prove parentage.

Additional reporting by the Associated Press