The ACLU attorney who fights to reunite migrant families

Lee Gelernt is deputy director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national Immigrants’ Rights Project. As the lead attorney on efforts to reunite migrant families separated by the Trump administration and in blocking the first version of the Muslim travel ban, he’s a familiar face in court.

Mr. Gelernt is based at the ACLU’s office in New York. On a visit to Boston, he talked about the ongoing efforts to track down and reunite thousands of families that were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border. Under a “zero tolerance policy,” which ended last summer, adults were prosecuted for crossing the border and their children were dispersed to shelters across the country. The ACLU successfully sued to halt the practice in a U.S. District Court in San Diego.

Since Donald Trump took