Separated families must be reunited within 30 days, says California court

If children are younger than five, they must be reunified within 14 days of the order. Pic/AFP

A judge in California has ordered US border authorities to reunite separated families within 30 days, setting a hard deadline in a process that has so far yielded uncertainty about when children might again see their parents.

If children are younger than five, they must be reunified within 14 days of the order issued yesterday by US District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego Sabraw, an appointee of President George W Bush, also issued a nationwide injunction on future family separations, unless the parent is deemed unfit or doesn't want to be with the child.

It also requires the government to provide phone contact between parents and their children within 10 days. More than 2,000 children have been separated from their parents and placed in government-contracted shelters - hundreds of miles away, in some cases - under a now-abandoned policy toward families caught illegally entering US.

Amid an international outcry, Trump last week issued an executive order to stop the separation of families and said parents and children will instead be detained together. Also, 17 states, including New York and California, sued the Trump administration to force it to reunite children and parents. The states, all led by Democratic attorneys general, joined Washington in filing the lawsuit.

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