Feds to reunite 1,600 undocumented immigrant kids with parents before Thursday deadline amid legal tug-of-war

More than 1,600 children separated from their parents at the border by the Trump administration are expected to be reunited by Thursday's court-ordered deadline, but now a battle is brewing over what should happen next to those reunified families.

The ACLU says that government is preparing to quickly deport hundreds of families immediately after their reunification and late Wednesday asked a federal judge to issue a stay blocking the government from deporting families for at least seven days.

The ACLU argues parents who haven't seen their children in months need time to consult with lawyers to figure out their legal options, including whether they should fight their deportation, be deported together or accept deportation but leave their child behind with relatives in the U.S. to pursue asylum on their own.

"The government took children, including babies, from their parents and did not return them for weeks and often months," the ACLU said in a court filing in San Diego. "The government should not now be able to argue that it cannot wait a mere seven days to remove these families, so that they can be advised on their life-altering decisions."

Government lawyers, however, are fighting the move, arguing that a court-ordered stay on deporting reunited families would interfere with the government's authority to enforce immigration laws.

In court filings arguing against the stay, government lawyers say that reunited parents have already had "adequate time to make a sound choice" regarding whether or not to reunify with their separated children.

Government lawyers also argue that parents who have chosen to reunify and then elect to leave the U.S. without their children are at odds with the court's order to bring separated families back together.

"Once the parent is identified, and has chosen using the Court-approved form to reunify with their child, requiring a parent to again choose whether to leave their child in the United States is inconsistent with this court's effort to return to the status quo and bring families back together," government lawyers wrote in a court filing.

A total of 900 parents out of 1,673 deemed eligible for reunification with separated children have final orders of removal, meaning the government could take action to quickly deport them, according to court filings and statements made by government lawyers during a status conference on Tuesday in front of U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego.

Sabraw has praised the government for being on track to meet his order and reunite 1,637 children approved by the government for reunification with their parents by Thursday's deadline.

But he expressed concern about the 914 parents the government has deemed ineligible for reunification, including 127 who signed documents waiving their rights to reunification and 463 who may already have been deported without their children.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, told Fox News’ Bret Baier on Tuesday that the 463 parents already deported could still contact federal authorities to be reunited with their kids.

"The parents always have the choice to take the children with them, so these are parents that made the choice not to bring the children with them,” she said.

A group of Democrats on the House Foreign Affairs Committee called on the administration to bring together the deported parents with their kids.

"To separate these children from their parents is disgusting and unconscionable," the lawmakers wrote in a letter sent late Wednesday to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "To then deport the parents from our country is a sign of just how far this Administration will go to demonstrate its hatred and vitriol towards immigrants."

"We urge you to instruct our embassies in Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras to do everything in their power to ensure the immediate reunification of these families.,” the lawmakers wrote.

In court filings submitted Tuesday, ACLU lawyers attached documents from lawyers who have interviewed dozens of parents who said they were pressured by the government while in detention to sign papers waiving reunification without understanding what they were signing. Sabraw gave government lawyers until noon Wednesday to provide more information about the 463 parents the government has concluded are no longer in the U.S. and may have been deported without their children. He expressed concerns they fell through the cracks.

"This could be, to be clear, the category where parents and children were separated either before or during the zero-tolerance policy and there wasn't infrastructure in place to determine at separate times where the parent was versus the child, which then resulted in a number of parents being removed without the child. Am I correct?" Sabraw asked during Tuesday's status conference.

"It could be your honor," responded Sarah Fabian, a lawyer for the government.

ACLU lawyers accused the government of intentionally withholding information about the 914 families deemed ineligible for reunification.

"The Trump administration's lack of transparency is now bordering on stonewalling," Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU's Immigrants' Rights Project, said in a statement. "And no one should forget that the government's claim that it will meet the reunification deadline is based on its exclusion of parents it has deported or can't locate, as well as on its unilateral, unchecked decision of who is eligible to be reunited or not."

Sabraw scheduled the next status conference with lawyers from the ACLU and the government for Friday.

Late Wednesday, the Congressional Hispanic Caucus dashed off a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions requesting a meeting to discuss their "deep concerns" with the administration's "zero tolerance" policy at the border.

The Trump administration instituted a “zero tolerance” immigration enforcement policy in an effort to deter families trying to enter the country illegally.

Sessions and Nielsen implemented the policy in earnest in May. Under previous administrations, most people caught crossing the border illegally were placed in civil deportation proceedings, which allowed them to be released into the country to await deportation hearings. The Trump administration refers to that policy as “catch and release” and has sought to end it.

Under the “zero tolerance” policy, most families caught crossing the border illegally have been charged with a criminal violation. That means parents are sent to adult detention centers. A combination of U.S. law and a 1997 court settlement prevent children from staying in detention centers for more than 20 days, which prompted the Trump administration to separate the families.

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