The Trump administration begged the courts Tuesday not to wade into the border family separation crisis, saying the government should be given time to work out what it’s going to do about more than 2,000 children who were taken from their parents after the zero-tolerance policy.
Far from helping, the courts would likely bungle the process, slowing the ability of parents to be reconnected, the Justice Department said.
“A hasty injunctive ruling by this court on issues of this level of complexity would be as likely to slow and complicate reunification efforts as to speed them,” the government lawyers said.
The lawyers gave no new details about the process nor timetables for when reunifications may occur.
The government is scrambling to implement President Trump’s executive order last week ending family separations. For starters, the Border Patrol is no longer referring parents for criminal prosecution for illegal immigration — dealing a major blow to the zero tolerance policy.
But the children who were already separated while the policy was in full operation remain a problem for Mr. Trump and his aides.
Immigrant-rights activists have asked the courts to step in and set deadlines for reunification, saying the administration appears to be bungling things when left to its own schedule.
The government, in a filing in federal district court in California, said the new family unification policy will “take time to be undertaken properly.”
If the courts want to get involved, the government said, it should be to receive updates on progress, rather than to order a specific plan.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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