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U.S. Ordered to Identify Thousands More Separated Families
The U.S. must identify thousands more families who were separated at Mexican border as long ago as July 2017, federal judge says.
11 Mar 2019, 06:53 AM IST 
A concertina barbed wire fence stands next to a border fence that separates the U.S. and Mexico in New Mexico, U.S. (Photographer: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg)
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. government must identify perhaps thousands more families who were separated at the Mexican border as long ago as July 2017, a federal judge said Friday.
- The judge granted a motion by the American Civil Liberties Union to expand a lawsuit seeking family reunification to include parents whose children were taken from them before the Justice Department implemented a "zero tolerance" policy last year
- The ruling means that the government must provide the identities of the parents and the children, who are no longer in U.S. custody, to the court and ACLU
- ACLU lawyers said they will contact the families to see whether they want to be identified
- The case is Ms. L. v. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, 18-CV-0428, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California (San Diego)
To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, David Glovin
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