Agreement would allow separated families to seek asylum in U.S.

The American Civil Liberties Union says it reached an agreement overnight with the Trump administration regarding the future of families separated at the Southwest border.

If approved by the court, the agreement would allow many of those families to apply for asylum, according to the ACLU. However, the agreement would not allow parents who have already been deported without their children to return to the U.S., except in “rare and unusual” cases.

The agreement lays out in detail how asylum claims can proceed, both for hundreds of families that have been reunified in the U.S., and for children whose parents were deported. In some situations, parents whose asylum claims were rejected at the earliest stage — known as the credible fear interview — will have a chance to present new information.

“This agreement would give many families a second chance at seeking asylum and leaves open the possibility for some deported parents to return to the United States,” said Lee Gelernt, the deputy director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, in a statement.

“The Trump administration will never be able to erase the full damage of its family separation policy,” Gelernt said. “But this agreement is an important step toward restoring and protecting the asylum rights of impacted children and parents going forward.”

The Trump administration separated more than 2500 children from their parents before abandoning the policy in June. The administration has since reunited nearly 2000 migrant children with their parents after being ordered to do so by a federal judge in California. As of last week, more than 400 children remained in government custody, in most cases because their parents have already been deported to Central America.

The agreement still requires approval from Federal District Judge Dana Sabraw, who is overseeing the ACLU’s family reunification lawsuit. Details of the agreement are likely to be discussed at a status hearing on Friday.

The Department of Justice declined to comment on the proposed agreement.

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