New court documents claim that Border Patrol agents temporarily separated some migrant families this summer, a practice President Joe Biden once called an “abhorrent."
In a Friday court filing, Dr. Paul Wise, a pediatrician tasked with monitoring the conditions and treatment of migrant children in U.S. Customs and Border Protection custody, said that he found children as young as 8 were separated from their parents by the Biden administration.
The separations were done mainly to prevent overcrowding in short-term holding facilities, but Wise warned that they could have a lasting effect on children.
“Interviews with parents and children found that there were minimal or no opportunities for phone contact or direct interaction between parent and child,” Wise said in the court filing. “The separation of families and the lack of interaction while in custody do significant, and potentially lasting, harm to children, particularly younger children.”
Wise, who’s been monitoring the cases of migrant children for about 40 years, noted the separated children were found to be much younger than in the past. In some cases this summer, the children were younger than 8, according to the filing.
Border Patrol agents would move the children to pods with other minors for three to four days if the pods with their families inside were too crowded, NBC reported.
It’s unclear exactly how many migrant families have been separated under Biden’s presidency, but an unnamed Border Patrol official told NBC News the practice is likely still happening despite Biden’s past criticism of the policy.
Before he was president, Biden denounced policies under his predecessor, Donald Trump, that separated illegal immigrant families at the border.
“A policy that separates young children from their parents isn't a 'deterrent.' It's unconscionable,” Biden said in a statement on Facebook in 2018, criticizing the Trump administration. “A policy that traumatizes children isn't a bargaining chip. It's abhorrent. And a President and an administration that continues this policy isn't protecting our border and our people. It threatens to make us a pariah in the world.”
Attorneys from the Department of Justice defended Trump’s implementation of the policy in court as recently as June, arguing migrant families were separated due to “perceived humanitarian considerations.”
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