The Story:
The Trump administration has filed with a court the settlement agreement it has reached with attorneys from the American Civil Liberties Union over an issue that has roiled the politics of this midterm year, the separation of parents and their children entering the US undocumented, whether illegally or in lawful search for asylum.
The Background:
The New York Times has reported that the overall number of detained migrant children is roughly 12,800. The administration says that most of those children crossed alone, without parents, so the issue of separation did not arise: the number of children who have been separated from their families is, it says, above 2,300.
The new agreement arises out of a lawsuit the ACLU filed on behalf of the members of a family from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who claim persecution in their homeland and are seeking asylum.
The Thing to Know:
The agreement must still be approved by the federal judge to whom the case has been assigned, the Hon. Dana Sabraw, in a federal district court in San Diego, California.
