El Paso shelter prepares to house dozens of reunited families

Monday there was some major news regarding the reunification of families who were separated by the Trump Administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy.

A federal judge temporarily halted the deportations of families.

There was concern that mass deportations would take place once families were reunited, but the judge on Monday ordered a temporary halt to any deportations for a week.

The judge’s ruling comes as an El Paso shelter is preparing to receive hundreds of families over the next week.

Under a court order the government has until July 26th to reunite about 2,900 children with their parents.

During a news conference at the Annunciation House in downtown El Paso the shelter’s director says they’re ready to welcome families once their children are back in their arms.

Ruben Garcia is the director of the Annunciation House.

He says the shelter is partnering with 10 other shelters across the Borderland that will house families once the families have been reunited.

Families will first be brought together at an ICE detention center and then they’ll be bussed over to the Annunciation House for placement.

Garcia says the shelter is expecting to receive about 100 people per day over the next week and a half.

“The pace of releases will increase dramatically in the next couple of days,” Garcia said. “We may be looking at as many as a hundred individuals, 50 families per day that will come to us until all the families in the El Paso area have been reunited and released to us and the target date will be July the 26th.”

One family has already been reunited at the shelter.

A father and his 6-year-old son arrived at the Annunciation House on Friday.

Garcia spoke about the child’s reaction and the effect these separations have had on children.

“The best way that I can describe it is looking all around. No smile (from the child), just looking all around trying to understand what is happening and wondering ‘Is someone going to take me away again?”

Garcia expects most of the families they receive to stay at least a day in the area before they leave to stay with other relatives living in the U.S..