Treating family reunification like a national emergency, HHS stresses safety precautions

Judy Woodruff:

Now, the latest on the government's plans to reunite migrant families after a court-imposed order to do so.

A federal judge gave the Trump administration a deadline of July 26 to reunite approximately 2,500 children between the ages 5 and 17.

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said today, "We will do our best, but we will not cut corners."

Our Amna Nawaz has been covering all this closely. She met with officials from the Department of Health and Human Services today. And she joins me now.

Amna, hello.

Amna Nawaz:

Hi, Judy.

Judy Woodruff:

So you were given rare access to this place, this administration command center where they're coordinating this reunification process.

What did you see, and how did you get this access?

Amna Nawaz:

Well, they invited handful of us who have been repeatedly reporting on this topic to come and get an inside look into how much of priority it is for the government and how they are addressing reunifications.

So, the command center is called the SOC. It's the secretary's operation center. It's like a lot of other command centers, right? There's rows and rows of workstations, decks, kind of stadium seating, all facing large JumboTrons, in which they're tracking in real time how many kids are coming into the system, how many are going out, how many free beds they have, and so on.

They tell us the SOC has been up and running for 28 days straight. It's a 24/7 operation. And it's clear they're treating this like a national emergency. This is the same command center they have up and running for natural disasters and for disease outbreaks.

Now, why did they let us in? Well, I think they wanted to make clear to us their very many and in some cases valid concerns about the safe placement of these kids. They stress to us they don't want to place kids into unsafe situations with traffickers, with people who aren't their parents, into abusive situations.

So they walked us through very carefully step by step what their vetting process is. It's also clear to us, though, that this is a process, because of the judge's timeline, that was sped up. This was not in place three weeks ago.

Judy Woodruff:

So, meanwhile, we know that, what, out of 103 children who were in custody under the age of 5, they have now reunified, what, 57 of those with their families.

Amna Nawaz:

That's right.

Judy Woodruff:

Now they're working on this larger group of children who are 5 and up.

Amna Nawaz:

Yes.

Judy Woodruff:

What do we know about how that's going?

Amna Nawaz:

So, we were told today a significant portion of the parents of those older kids, 5 to 17, are already in ICE detention. It simplifies the process somewhat, because it means a lot of those kids will be reunited with parents in ICE detention.

And they're setting up a handful of reunification sites as primary notifications for them. Now, generally, they say, when the families are reunited there, they're released into the general public. They can have their immigration cases adjudicated in due course.

But we also know, as the government lawyer has argued, look, if a parent already has a deportation order in place, they're given a choice. You can either leave with your kid or leave without them.

Now, the judge has put a stay on those deportations for about a week. That was earlier this week. We don't know what will happen on the back end of that.

But on top of that, Judy, we're getting some indication of what kids go through when they're in government custody. There's a new filing in a federal court in a lawsuit in Los Angeles.

And I want to read you a couple of excerpts, because these are testimonies from the kids themselves who've been in government custody. There was one from a 10-year-old girl from Guatemala. She was talking about an overcrowded facility.

She said, "I was placed with female girls from 5 to 6 years old to 15 or 16 years old. There were large numbers of girls, some of whom had to sleep on concrete and sitting up because there wasn't sufficient room in the cell."

She also talked about frozen food and a lack of water.

There was another boy, 14-year-old from Guatemala. He talked about the facilities there. He said, "Since I arrived, I have not been able to shower or brush my teeth. There's no soap in my room, no towels. I had a toothbrush when I came. They took it away. No one has allowed me to brush my teeth, and no one's told me when I will be allowed it to take a shower."

So there's a lot of concern coming about, what happens to kids once they're in custody?

Judy Woodruff:

OK, so just about, what, 40 seconds left.

You have been tracking the case of this 3-year-old girl Sofi (ph) separated from her grandmother at the border. What's the latest?

Amna Nawaz:

She's still in government custody. Her family is still going through the process.

Look, this is one case. We know it could be an outlier. But we know a lot of things we heard from officials this morning about things they do to speed up the process, DNA swabs, for example, they're not being done in Sofi's case.

So, we don't have a timeline for when she's going to be reunified. The officials told us average time in custody right now is about 50 days. As of tomorrow, Sofi will have been in custody for one month.

Judy Woodruff:

So important to follow this. And I know you have been on it, and you will stay on it.

Amna Nawaz, thank you.

Amna Nawaz:

Thanks, Judy.