The Christian Science Monitor

Family reunifications come too late for one migrant father

Elizabeth Caballero, an immigration lawyer, stands outside her office, on July 24, 2018 in San Antonio, Texas. While the Trump administration has been rushing to comply with a court deadline to reunify the thousands of migrant families it has separated, Ms. Caballero has been grappling with the sudden deportation of her client without his five-year-old daughter.

After months of separating migrant families at the southern border, the Trump administration was under a federal court order to undo the damage by today. 

But for Elizabeth Caballero, a lawyer in San Antonio, Thursday's deadline came too late. Her client, a Honduran father separated at the border from his five-year-old daughter, has already been deported without her being alerted, she found out last week. That was a shock to her, a first for her immigration practice, and another sign of just how much the ground for immigration rights has shifted under the Trump administration. 

Rafael, whose name has been changed to protect his privacy, is one of 463 parents

'Like we were criminals'How things got done before

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