Search Continues for Parents of 628 Children Separated at US Border

628名兒童在美邊境失散 尋親仍在繼續

A court-appointed committee has not yet found the parents of 628 children separated at the United States-Mexico border since 2017.

一個由法院指定的委員會仍未找到2017年在美墨邊境走散的628名兒童的雙親。

They were separated under a “zero tolerance” policy on illegal border crossings. The policy resulted in thousands of separations when parents were charged as criminals.

在對非法越境“零容忍”的政策下他們被迫分開。當時的政策導致父母被指控為有罪，也因此引發數千人被迫流散。

The parents of 333 children are believed to be in the U.S., while those of the other 295 are believed to be outside the country.

據信，其中333名兒童的父母尚在美國，而其他295名兒童的父母則在國外。

That does not mean the parents and children are still separated. It only means that the committee has been unable to find the parents. The committee has found other family members for 168 of the 628 children whose parents have not been found.

這並不意味著父母和孩子仍然處於失散狀態——它僅意味著委員會找不到這些孩子的父母。委員會為628名未找到父母的兒童中的168名找到了其他家庭成員。

On November 25, the Trump administration gave the committee phone numbers and other information to assist the search.

11月25日，特朗普政府為委員會提供了電話號碼和其他資訊以協助搜尋。

Lee Gelernt is a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) which represents the parents. He said he had been asking the administration for any additional information for the last year.

李·蓋勒恩特是美國公民自由聯盟(ACLU)的一名律師，他代表父母一方。他表示去年他一直在向政府要求獲取更多詳細資訊。

“We just received this new information the day before (the American holiday of) Thanksgiving and only because the global outcry over the fact that these parents had not been found,” he told the Associated Press.

他對美聯社說：“我們是在感恩節(美國節日)的前一天才收到這一新訊息。這僅僅是因為尚未找到這些父母的事實引發了全球的強烈抗議。”

The search committee said it is too early to know how useful the additional phone numbers will be in finding more parents.

搜尋委員會表示，現在說這些電話號碼對搜尋更多孩子父母來說有多大用處還為時過早。

In June 2018, U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego ordered an end to the “zero-tolerance” policy. He ordered the children and parents reunited within 30 days. At that time, more than 2,700 children were separated from their parents.

2018年6月，美國聖地亞哥地區法官達娜·薩布魯下令結束“零容忍”政策。他命令孩子們和父母在30天內團聚——當時有2700多名兒童與父母失散。

The 628 children whose parents have not been found were separated before the judge’s order, going back to July 1, 2017. The children were all released by the government before the June 2018 order and their families are difficult to find because the government kept poor records. They include hundreds of children separated during a test of the policy in El Paso, Texas, from July to November 2017, that was not known to the public at the time.

這628名沒有找到父母的孩子在法官下達這一命令前就已失散。他們與雙親失散可以追溯到2017年7月1日。這些孩子早在2018年6月法官下達命令前就已被政府釋放，但由於政府並未儲存有效記錄，他們都很難找到家人。他們當中還包括2017年7月至11月在得克薩斯州埃爾帕索政策試行期間被迫失散的數百名兒童，而當時公眾對此尚不知情。

During the final weeks of his campaign, President-elect Joe Biden promised he would create a special committee to find the parents.

在競選的最後幾周，當選總統喬·拜登承諾他將成立一個特別委員會來尋找這些孩子的父母。

The ACLU wants Biden to permit separated families to return to the United States and to receive “some kind of legal status.” Gelernt added, “We think that’s only fair given what they’ve been put through.”

美國公民自由聯盟希望拜登允許失散的家庭重返美國並獲得“某種合法地位”，蓋勒特補充說，“我們認為考慮到他們經歷的這一切，只有這樣（獲得合法地位）才是公平的。”

Volunteers have searched for parents by phone and by going house-to-house in Central America. The effort was stopped by the coronavirus health crisis. The committee has also mailed letters to 1,600 possible families and established free telephone numbers in the U.S., Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador for them to call.

志願者透過電話和在中美洲挨家挨戶走訪去尋找孩子的父母。由於冠狀病毒健康危機搜尋的工作也被迫結束。該委員會還向1600個可能的家庭寄送信件，並在美國、墨西哥、瓜地馬拉、宏都拉斯和薩爾瓦多設立了免費電話號碼供他們撥打。

I'm Susan Shand.