Children seen on the grounds of the Southwest Key facility in Tucson, Arizona, July 7, 2018.
July 26 is the deadline for the federal government to finish reuniting migrant children with their parents, and court documents filed Thursday afternoon say there have been 364 reunifications of families with children age 5 and up.
Lawyers for the government wrote that they’re giving daily updates on reunifications to the American Civil Liberties Union. But lawyers for the ACLU wrote that they have not gotten critical information from the government.
The court documents suggest the government will not make the July 26 deadline, said Ray Ybarra Maldonado, an immigration attorney based in Phoenix.
“I think we’re going to look at some sanctions from the judge,” he said. “Perhaps holding them in contempt for not working hard enough to meet the hard deadlines.”
Lawyers for the ACLU and the U.S. government are due back in court Friday afternoon.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
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