ACLU: 911 children split at border since 2018 court order

SAN DIEGO (AP) — More than 900 children, including babies and toddlers, were separated from their parents at the border in the year after a judge ordered the practice be sharply curtailed, the American Civil Liberties Union said today in a legal attack that will invite more scrutiny of the Trump administration's widely criticized tactics.

The ACLU said the administration is separating families over dubious allegations and minor transgressions including traffic offenses. It asked a judge to rule on whether the 911 separations from June 28, 2018, to June 29 of this year were justified.

In June 2018 – days after President Donald Trump retreated amid an international uproar – U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered that the practice of splitting up families at the border be halted except in limited circumstances, like threats to child safety. The judge left individual decisions to the administration's discretion.

Since then, a parent was separated for having damaged property valued at $5, the ACLU said. A 1-year-old was separated after an official criticized her father for letting her sleep with a wet diaper.

In another case, a 2-year-old Guatemalan girl was separated from her father after authorities examined her for a fever and diaper rash and found she was malnourished and underdeveloped, the ACLU said. The father, who came from an "extraordinarily impoverished community" rife with malnutrition, was accused of neglect.

About 20% of the 911 children separated from in the year after the judge's order were under 5 years old, the ACLU said.

The separations occurred during an unprecedented surge of children from Central America that has overwhelmed U.S. authorities, most coming in families but many unaccompanied. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan told a Senate committee the agency encountered more than 300,000 children since Oct. 1.

More than 2,700 children were separated at the time of Sabraw's 2018 ruling, which forced the government to reunify them with their parents.