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Reunifying families separated on the Mexico-United States border is a massive undertaking.
About 2,300 undocumented children were taken from their parents in recent weeks by US Border Control. That stopped last Wednesday when US President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending his administration’s policy of separating the families of illegal immigrants at the border.
So far only about 500 children have been reunited with their families. Many of them have been moved thousands of miles from the border, while their parents are detained for immigration hearings. Some are very young, still babies.
Dozens of non-profit, religious and other companies and organisations have provided services to the children.
Many have been local mainstays of refugee services for years. One of these, Catholic Extension, has announced it has established a Family Reunification Fund. (Catholic Extension is the leading supporter of missionary work in poor and remote parts of the US.)
They say the fund is “a response to the human tragedy unfolding on the nation’s southern border” with Mexico.
It will support ministries that provide direct outreach and advocacy for immigrant families who are “separated as a consequence of our broken immigration system.
“The fund will mainly benefit existing ministries on the southern US border with Mexico, specifically those that are actively sheltering, defending and caring for immigrants and their families,” a spokesperson says.
Family separations at the border and policy debates over that policy as well as the nation’s immigration system “have exposed the profound misery of those fleeing their countries and coming to the United States,” the spokesperson continues.
The fund will help Catholic Extension increase its support to resource-strapped immigrant ministries “at this very critical moment when policy changes are creating even more hardship and uncertainty among immigrant families.”
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