U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw said Monday that he's become "exasperated" by the Trump administration's slow work to reunify more than 2,600 children separated from their parents and ordered the government to halt all deportations of parents for at least a week.
Sabraw scolded the Department of Health and Human Services for taking so long to reunite children in its care with their parents being held in separate government facilities. The judge was responding to a court filing by Chris Meekins, a senior HHS official who wrote that the judge's order requiring accelerated reunifications was leading to "increased risks to child welfare."
Sabraw tore into Meekins during a court hearing in San Diego on Monday, saying his claims were "deeply troubling" and "completely unhelpful" to what had been a mutual spirit of good faith between the two sides. The judge also said Meekins' filing appeared to represent an effort to deflect blame for any damage caused to children as a result of the government's own family separation policy.
Sabraw made clear Monday that HHS is a defendant in the case and the judge has ordered the agency to look out for the welfare of children by reuniting them with their parents.
"It is failing in this context," he said.
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04.25.2024