No Framework To Reunite Border Children Separated From Parents

NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Despite a Presidential executive order, chaos reigns in the process to reunite immigrant parents and children separated by the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigrant policy.

"We don't know what's going on," said GianCarlos Franco, an immigration lawyer for the group RAICES (Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services).

RAICES is one of the main organizations in Texas legally representing parents and kids who have been separated from one another. Attorneys with the group say there is no framework to reunite the children with their families because there was no frame work to separate them.

"RAICES has been trying to help them locate their child because that's one of the main problems faced by people in detention," said Franco.

Officials with RAICES say they have teamed up with social workers and non-profit groups to match up parents and children -- who were often sent to whatever shelter or detention center had space for them.

Lawyers say there are other challenges after the parents and children are identified and located. RAICES, which has been flooded with donations from the public, is helping kids by representing them free of charge and paying for other expenses for parents, like phone calls.

"We've used some of the money that we have gotten to pay commissary for adults that are being detained," said Franco. "It's just like jail. You put money in so they can make calls out."

They group is also using donated money to pay jail bonds, so parents who get their day in court can claim their kids. Franco says immigration those bonds range from $1,500 to $10,000.

In some cases, adults will have to go to court to get their children back. Some parents have been deported to their home country while their kids are still in a shelter in the U.S. "There's a lawsuit right now with a Guatemalan woman who got deported and they deported her without her child," said Franco.

Officials with RAICES say in the best case scenario it could be months before parents can see their kids again.