Fathers separated from children at border join other families in formal complaint

Kate Morrissey - San Diego Union-Tribune

Immigrant rights advocacy groups and non-profits in the US came together to file a complaint in December 2017 with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in response to the increase in parents separated from their children upon entry into the US along the southwest border. The complaint is issued in response to new US policy to separate immigrant families at the border. The complaint documents "at least 15 cases of asylum-seeking families split apart and sent to different detention facilities. Not all of the cases described in the complaint are indicative of a policy change, but circumstances in some of the cases suggest that the new proposal is already having an effect."

Four fathers included in the complaint came from El Salvador and Honduras with their children to flee gang violence, extortion, and death threats, according to this article from the San Diego Union-Tribune. The fathers "were together in a temporary processing cell in San Diego in mid-November when immigration officials forced them to hand over their children, whose ages ranged from one to 12."