Only 12 Separated Immigrant Kids In NYC Reunited With Families

NEW YORK, NY — Only about a dozen of the roughly 350 immigrant kids brought to the New York City area under the Trump administration's family separation policy have been reunited with their families as of Thursday, according to Catholic Charities, while hundreds more are still apart from their parents.

A California federal judge ordered the government to reunify all separated children under age 5 with their families by Tuesday. About two dozen kids that age have been sent to the New York City area as a result of the separations, said Mario Russell, the director of immigrant and refugee services for Catholic Charities New York.

About 12 of those children were reunited with family members in the last two days, but the rest could not be reunified under parameters set by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Russell said.

"They’re in limbo, because the parents have been classified either as not possible to be reached, so reunification’s not possible in the United States," or because of safety concerns, Russell told City Council lawmakers at a Thursday hearing.

Meanwhile, there's been no movement toward reuniting the rest of the more than 300 kids younger than 18 with their families, Russell said. Those families are reportedly supposed to be reunified by July 26 under the California court order.

The Trump administration said it had only reunited 57 of 103 children younger than 5 with their families under the court order as of Thursday morning. The remaining 46 were deemed ineligible for reunification because of safety concerns or because of the adults' circumstances, federal officials said.

The federal "zero tolerance" policy calling for the prosecution of anyone caught crossing the southern U.S. border illegally has reportedly caused more than 2,000 kids to be separated from their parents, spurring public outrage in New York and across the country.

Representatives for two nonprofit agencies serving the kids in New York City — Cayuga Centers and Lutheran Social Services — did not tell the Council how many separated children younger than 5 they have in their care, citing confidentiality concerns.

The process for reunifying the children has so far been haphazard, with short notice and limited coordination between the federal government and the local foster agencies, service providers said.

For instance, an agency was recently told one kid would be reunited with their family the next day, but another call came at 11 p.m. calling off the reunification, said Msgr. Kevin Sullivan, Catholic Charities New York's executive director.

"What kind of disruption is that in the life of a child who thinks, 'Well, finally I’m going to get back with my parents,' and now they’re not?" Sullivan said.

The separated kids are considered "unaccompanied alien children" in the custody of the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is under the Department of Health and Human Services.

Many of the kids brought to the New York City area come from Central American countries of Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador, Russell said. Most of them have been in touch with a parent, he said.

Local nonprofit agencies provide the kids with education, health care and recreation and work to find family sponsors who could take them in.

But some family members, including those who may be undocumented, are hesitant to come forward and serve as sponsors because of the current immigration environment, service providers said.

The federal government has largely kept city officials in the dark as the situation has unfolded. Bitta Mostofi, the commissioner of the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs, said she and David Hansell, the Administration for Children's Services commissioner, had a conference call with senior Health and Human Services officials about the separated children on June 15.

The federal officials promised to provide the number of separated kids in New York City, but further requests for the information went unanswered, Mostofi said.

Council Speaker Corey Johnson called the feds' silence an "outrage."

"To not provide a level of transparency ... makes this even more sick and cruel and despicable," Johnson said.

(Lead image: Msgr. Kevin Sullivan speaks at a City Council hearing on Thursday. Photo by Emil Cohen/New York City Council)