Child migrants separated from their parents could face YEARS without seeing their families, experts warn
MIGRANT children separated from their parents at the US border could go years without seeing their families, experts have warned.
After days of pressure and global outrage, President Donald Trump reversed his controversial policy by signing an executive order saying families should be detained together.
But Trump, 71, did not say what would happen to the thousands of unaccompanied kids already being held in detention centres in the US.
If anything, the U-turn has created further confusion for both migrant families and agencies in charge of detaining them.
There have been report of officials being told to only prosecute fathers, leaving mothers to look after the kids.
Meanwhile the US Defense Department revealed it has been asked to house as many as 20,000 unaccompanied minors in the coming months.
How Melania and Ivanka convinced Donald Trump to change his mind on child migrant detentions
DONALD Trump was urged by his wife Melania to do something to stop children being separated from their parents at the US-Mexico border.
During private conversations with the president, she urged him to end the humanitarian crisis after showing him horrifying pictures of kids in cages, a White House official said.
In the Oval Office, Trump said he had also heard from his daughter and aide, Ivanka Trump, about the policy.
He said: "Ivanka feels very strongly. My wife feels very strongly about it. I feel very strongly about it. I think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it," Trump said.
But despite days of heart-wrenching images of children being pulled from their immigrant parents, she stayed publicly quiet until Trump osigned an executive order designed to keep families together on Wednesday.
Then the first daughter tweeted: "Thank you @POTUS for taking critical action ending family separation at our border," and called on Congress to "find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values."
The First lady weighed in more quickly, with her office issuing a statement over the weekend saying she "hates" to see families separated at the border.
On Wednesday, a White House official said she "has been making her opinion known" to her husband that he needs to do all he can to keep migrant families together.
The former head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has now said it could be years before families are reunited.
John Sandweg said a parent's case for deportation or asylum is handled much quicker than that of their children, who are seen as a "lower priority" for the courts.
He added: "You could easily end up in a situation where the gap between a parent's deportation and a child's deportation is years.
"You could be creating thousands of immigrant orphans... that one day could become eligible for citizenship when they are adopted."
Sandweg said he has personally seen situations where a child has never seen its parents again after they were deported.
A senior Trump official said around 500 of more than 2,300 children separated from their families have been reunited since May.
But many parents now back in their home country have said they do not know where their children are.
A 31-year-old Brazilian man held in Milan, New Mexico said he did not know when he would see his nine-year-old son again.
The father, who is seeking asylum, said he had spoken to his son just once since they were separated 26 days earlier.
Agencies are now setting up a centralised system for remaining separated children and their families at a detention centre in Texas.
There were also signs that the administration was dialling back its "zero-tolerance" policy for the time being.
Read more about Donald Trump
Last night, First Lady Melania Trump caused huge controversy when she wore a jacket saying "I really don't care, do you?" on her way to visit detained migrant children.
Trump later claimed the slogan was referring to the "fake news media", tweeting: "Melania has learned how dishonest they are, and she truly no longer cares!"
The first lady – who reportedly had pushed Donald Trump to U-turn on his controversial child migration policy – wore the jacket as she travelled to Texas to talk to kids at a detention centre.
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