In a conference call, Justice Department officials told lawyers for the plaintiffs that they would take each lawsuit to court, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said.
The U.S. government pulled out of settlement talks to end lawsuits filed for families who were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance border police, the American Civil Liberties Union said. In a conference call, Justice Department officials told lawyers for the plaintiffs that the government would not offer a global settlement in family separation cases and will take the lawsuits to court, ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt said. Under the zero-tolerance border policy, approximately 5,500 children were forcibly separated from their parents in 2017 and 2018 to dissuade people from crossing the U.S.-Mexico border, also giving them criminal prosecutions even if the migrants were handing themselves over to authorities to seek asylum, as allowed under the law. Hundreds of children still await reunions with their parents, as they haven’t been located. Trump stopped the separations in June 2018 during outrage across the nation, including from many Republicans.
