Lawmakers Announce Plan to Reunite Deported Migrants with Families

A new legislative effort has been initiated into the reunification of families that were separated due to deportation by prior U.S. policies on immigration. The proposed plan would make provisions for the return of deported parents and guardians to the United States to reunite them with their children. The effort comes in response to the outcry over the humanitarian impact of those family separations—specifically, those conducted under the "zero tolerance" policy of the Trump administration, which separated thousands of children away from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.

The lawmakers behind the initiative underline the moral and ethical necessity for acting to deal with trauma from the separations. It provides a clear process for reviewing cases of those already deported and gives them an opportunity, once their case is reopened and re-adjudicated, to return home to the United States to reunification with their families. Supporters view this bill as a measure of justice restored to these affected families, while detractors are concerned about what it might portend for the enforcement and formulation of immigration policy. The very proposal reflects the ongoing debates over immigration reform and how to treat migrants and their families in the U.S. legal and social framework.