By Ted Hesson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. will offer migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border under then-President Donald Trump temporary legal status and other benefits while barring similar separations in the future, according to a summary of a settlement agreement filed on Monday.
The agreement currently applies to some 3,900 children separated from their parents during Trump’s four-year presidency that began in January 2017, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which represents separated families in a lawsuit first filed in 2018.
The number of children covered will likely expand, the ACLU said.
The settlement is part of an ongoing effort by U.S. President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration to reunite families separated under Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy instituted in 2018, which called for the prosecution of all unauthorized border crossers.
Government watchdogs and immigration advocates have found the separations began before and continued after the policy’s official start.
The agreement will be subject to a U.S. district court judge’s approval. Trump, the frontrunner to become the Republican nominee for president in 2024, has criticized Biden’s handling of border security and pledged to implement hardline immigration policies if reelected.
(Reporting by Ted Hesson in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis and Deepa Babington)
