Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) on Friday said that federal authorities ultimately have the power to hold the Trump administration accountable when it comes to reuniting more than 2,500 migrant children with their parents after they were separated at the U.S. southern border.
“The authority of a judge is to hold them contempt of court,” Cortez Masto told Hill.TV’s Jamal Simmons in response to a question on what would happen if the Trump administration didn’t meet a court-ordered deadline for reunification.
“But the biggest hammer that this judge has right now is the jurisdiction over this administration — to constantly pull them into court, question what they are doing, get the documents from them and make sure that these families are being reunited,” Cortez Masto continued.
“We can continue to work for those 463 parents that have been deported already.” the former district attorney added. “That’s something for the judge to also question.”
U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw initially set the July 26 deadline, which called for the government to reunite all children ages 5 to 17 with their families.
On Tuesday, Sabraw called Trump progress ahead of the deadline for reunifying families separated at the border a “remarkable achievement,” but he also said that he found that the effects of Trump’s policy that led to the separations “deeply troubling.”
Trump’s “zero-tolerance” policy is what lead to the separation of migrant families at the southern border.
The administration on Thursday identified 1,634 parents eligible for reunification with their children, out of a possible 2,551 children ages 5 and up in custody.
But another 463 parents may have already been deported, according to a government report. The administration said this exact number is still “under review.”
— Tess Bonn
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