Washington D.C., Oct 25, 2018 / 14:00 pm
Catholic and Lutheran agencies jointly released a report Oct. 17 to document the two agencies' role in helping to reunite migrant families separated at the U.S./Mexico border.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops/Migration and Refugee Services (USCCB/MRS) and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service (LIRS) report that they assisted the federal government during July 2018 in reuniting and releasing nearly 1,200 families that had been separated under U.S. migration policy.
About 2,300 families separated migrant have been reunited as of the end of September; some remaining in detention centers, some reuniting in their country of origin, and some being released and allowed to enter the US, with Florida, Texas, and California as the top destinations.
The report notes that families had been separated at the U.S./Mexico border since the administration of George H.W. Bush, generally due to "child welfare concerns." At the end of the Obama administration, however, the Department of Homeland Security separated nearly 1,800 children from their parents between October 2016 and February 2018.