Washington (AP) -The 17-year-old girl in a pink sweater put her head in her hands and weigh her bleak options from the empty room of an animal shelter in Poughkeepsia, New York.
During a video call in an immigration court in Manhattan, she heard a judge to a judge as a lawyer how the recent regulations for DNA tests, income review and more – to reunite with her parents in the United States have hoped over 70 days.
Since the government’s aggressive efforts to contain migration
According to the Trump rules, migrant children remained in shelters on an average of 217 days before they were released to family members last month, so recent data from the Health and Human Services office. During the bidges administration, migrant children spent an average of 35 days in animal shelters before they were released to relatives.
“Together, these political changes led to children across the country separated from their loving families, while the government denied their release and unnecessarily extended their detention,” argued the lawyers of the National Center for Youth Rights in court documents that were submitted on May 8.
However, the Trump administration has argued that the recent rules ensure that the children are being transferred to protected houses and prevents people from bringing children into the country illegally.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the health secretary, told the legislators in the congress this month: “Nobody gets a child without showing that they are a family member.”
The family situation for the 17-year-old and her 14-year-old brother, who came with her from the Dominican Republic, is complicated. Her parents, who lived separately, were already trying to unite with them in the United States, their children in order to leave a problematic life situation with a stepmother in their home country.
After 70 days in custody, the juvenile girl seemed to be asking whether she would ever return to her mother or father in the USA if she agreed to leave America, asked the judge how quickly she would be sent back to her home country?
“Pretty soon,” the judge said before adding: “It doesn’t feel nice to be in this shelter all the time.”
The siblings that the Associated Press approved not to identify themselves at the request of their mother and because they are minors are not alone. Thousands of children have undertaken the hike from Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico and other countries, often about the promise to settle with a family member in the United States
You have suspended longer waiting times in federal custody, as officials carry out DNA tests, check the income of family members and inspect houses before publishing the children. The recent rules also require adults who sponsor children in order to enable identification to us.
The federal government published only 45 children to sponsors last month, and also remained in their care as more than 2,200 children.
Child remains under because Trump DNA tests needed
As part of the Biden Administration, officials tried to publish children to authorized sponsors for adults within 30 days and quickly combines many families. However, the approach also resulted in errors, whereby some children were released that they have forced to work illegally, or to people who clearly delivered false identification and addresses.
Trump’s Republican administration said their requirements will prevent children from being placed in houses, where they may be exposed to abuse risk or exploited for child labor. Officials carry out a review of 65,000 “concerns”, which were presented to the Federal Government with thousands of children who have been accommodated in adult sponsors since 2023.
The Ministry of Justice has already charged a man for allegations.
DNA tests and ID requirements for child protection take time in time
Immigration lawyers have sued the Trump government in order to block the stricter requirements in the name of parents and adult siblings who are waiting to bring migrant children to their houses.
“We stuck a lot of children … simply because they are waiting for DNA tests,” said the lawyer of immigration, Tatine Darker, from the church service when she was sitting next to the Dominican girl.
On this day, five other children appeared from animal shelters in New York and New England and everyone said they had experienced delays in releasing to their relatives.
The most recent guidance of the Trump administration to DNA tests states that the process generally takes at least two weeks if the results of the case check and the subsequent results are taken into account.
But some relatives have waited a month or more to get a test, said Molly Chew, a legal consultant in Vecina. The organization ends its work and supports Wächter in reunification based on federal finance cuts and other legal and political challenges among juvenile immigration programs. DNA diagnostic centers that carry out the tests for the federal government did not respond to a request for comments.
The plaintiffs in the class action submitted by the National Center for Youth Act have also cataloged long waiting times and slow DNA results. A mother in Florida said she was waiting for at least a month to make a DNA date, as was submitted from the court.
Another mother waited three weeks for results. When they came through the Trump administration in April, the Trump administration introduced a recent rule according to which it provided Pay stubs that it does not have. Instead, she submitted bank statements. Her children were released 10 weeks after the submission of their application in accordance with the court documents submitted on Tuesday.
Many parents who live in the United States without work have no income documents or US identification documents such as visa or driver’s licenses.
The siblings, which take place in Poughkeepsia Shelter, are in this riddle, said Darker, the New York immigration lawyer. In March they crossed the border between the USA and Mexico with their 25-year-old sister and their children, who were quickly deported.
Her mother said she moved to New Jersey a few years ago to make money to support her. It could not meet the recent income reporting requirements. Her father, also from the Dominican Republic, lives in Boston and agreed to take her. However, the DNA test process took weeks. The AP could not reach him for a comment.
She said her children were depressed and now just wanted to return to the Dominican Republic.
“My children will return because they can no longer stand it,” said the mother in Spanish. She noticed that her children would have been in the shelter for three months on Sunday.
