US moving some detained immigrants to sites closer to their children: HHS Secretary Alex Azar

The U.S. government is moving some immigrants parents to detention sites closer to the young children they were separated from while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border to meet a court-imposed deadline to reunify families, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said on Thursday.

U.S. Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego last month ordered the government to stop separating children from immigrant parents entering the United States illegally and set an initial deadline of July 10 to reunite families.

To speed the reunification process, the Department of Homeland Security is relocating parents of children under 5 years old to detention facilities close to their children “so that we can as expeditiously as possible reunite the children with their parents to meet the court’s deadline,” Azar said.

Reporting by Yeganeh Torbati