The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit in federal court over the practice of splitting up migrant families seeking asylum in the United States, The Wall Street Journal reports.
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego could rule this week on the ACLU’s request for a court order to stop the practice of separating children from their parents unless the government can show that the parents are unfit or could endanger their children. The ACLU also moved to pursue a class action suit.
The ACLU is not challenging the prosecution of asylum seekers who illegally cross the border, but if the injunction is granted it would cover those asylum seekers who arrive at a port of entry and are not criminally prosecuted, but are housed in separate facilities from their children.
The government argues that family separations are done due to "concerns about the safety of the individual child, efforts to interrupt smuggling operations on a broader scale, law enforcement interests in identifying and prosecuting criminals and detecting immigration fraud."
Sabraw, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush, refused to dismiss the lawsuit, writing in her decision that if the allegations are true, then the government’s conduct "is brutal, offensive, and fails to comport with traditional notions of fair play and decency."
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