LISTEN TO PRESS CALL HERE
Austin, TX – The Texas Civil Rights Project hosted a press call on Sunday evening to provide an update on the latest from the border on the family separation caused by the Trump Administration and the petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human RIghts (“IACHR”).
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (“IACHR”) has formally demanded details about the Trump administration’s treatment of separated children and the reunification process. The request comes in response to an emergency request that civil and human rights groups filed with the IACHR last month in an effort to halt the administration’s family separation policies.
“This demand for answers by the Inter-American Commission represents a key first step towards rendering a decision that could lead to stopping the Trump Administration’s inhumane and illegal practices,” Efrén C. Olivares, Racial and Economic Justice Director for the Texas Civil Rights Project, said during the call. “We asked the IACHR to immediately require the U.S. government to reunite these families and stop this inhumane and illegal practice. We hope we have moved closer to that happening.”
In late May, the Texas Civil Rights Project, the Women’s Refugee Commission, the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, and Garcia & Garcia Attorneys at Law, P.L.L.C., filed an Emergency Request for Precautionary Measures with the IACHR on behalf of parents systematically separated from their children at the United States-Mexico border.
Since the Emergency Request was submitted, TCRP has interviewed 376 additional separated families and recorded their information.