One-fourth of separated immigrant children 'in limbo' at local facilities: Catholic Charities

More than two months after they began arriving at local children's centers, about one-fourth of the immigrant children who were separated from their parents at the U.S. border in recent months remain "in the limbo stage." 

Officials at Catholic Charities of New York said most of the children who still are at local facilities also face a dimmer chance of being reunited with their parents anytime soon.

In many cases that's because federal officials are moving slowly on their cases, and because of a potential safety concern if those children are reunited. 

"That's a fundamental problem now that we're talking about, it's these kids that are in this limbo stage," said Mario Russell, director of immigration and refugee services for Catholic Charities of New York. "There's no excuse."

"It's been way too long," Russell said. "It's been too much trauma, way too much separation, way too much suffering, frankly." 

The children housed at four local facilities — Lincoln Hall in Somers, Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry, Abbott House in Irvington, and Rising Ground in Yonkers — were among more than 2,300 nationwide taken from their parents at the U.S. border. 

Russell would not discuss details on how many children were housed or remain.

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Officials at the four local facilities have repeatedly declined to discuss the cases since the presence of the children at the facilities became public, although approximately 20 were said to be housed at Children's Village. 

"We have been working diligently to connect children in our Passage of Hope program with their adult resource as quickly and safely as possible," said Jerry McKinstry, a spokesman for Rising Ground. 

McKinstry referred further questions to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, the agency that contracts with the local facilities to house the children. 

The other three area facilities did not respond to new requests for comment.

Separated children scattered around

The children at those facilities were sent there and detained in recent months after their parents crossed the U.S. border and, in most cases, sought asylum. Their parents were kept in detention facilities near the border, in many cases while they await a court hearing to try to gain temporary residency while their asylum cases are considered.

They were separated under President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy on immigration, an attempt to halt the flow of immigrants entering the country. 

On June 20, following a federal judge's ruling to reunite the families, Trump reversed his policy and said the children will be reunited. But immigration advocates say the process has been haphazard at best, with hundreds still housed throughout the country. 

"What I can tell you, approximately three-quarters of the kids who were separated from their parents have been or are in the process of reunifying in the United States," said Russell, of Catholic Charities. "Approximately one-quarter of them haven't been reunified for one reason or another."

He said that includes the cases of more than 400 parents nationwide who agreed to voluntary deportation without their children "on an understanding or an expectation that they could be quickly reunited with their kids. The opposite has happened."

Russell said federal authorities have essentially put those cases on the back-burner while the slow process of uniting parents who remain in U.S. detention moves ahead.

The parents who were voluntarily deported are no longer within the scope of the federal judge's ruling to reunited with their children, and are therefore not a priority for government officials, he said. 

Russell said area facilities housing the children have also made determinations that, in some cases, there is "the issue of safety or danger with respect to the unification itself."

That could mean the possibility of a hostile or violent environment in the children's native land or a potential threat to the well being of the children if they are reunited. 

Local officials toured the facilities

Word of the children's placement at Lower Hudson Valley facilities raised an uproar among many in the community, and prompted at least two delegations of elected officials who visited the sites — although they were not allowed to visit with the children.

That included a July 3 visit to Rising Ground in Yonkers.

"When I visited Rising Ground, I was assured that all children would be returned to their families as soon as possible," state Sen. Andrea Stewart-Cousins said Tuesday.

"All efforts should be made to help expedite the family reunification process so all of these children are back with their loved ones," Stewart-Cousins said. "It is essential that the barbaric practice of separating children from their parents is halted immediately and permanently."

That visit came four days after U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey and U.S. Rep. Eliot Engel led a delegation that visited Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry. 

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