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More Than 100 Children Separated From Families At Border Now In LA, Garcetti Confirms

Tornillo.jpg
Shoes are left by people at the Tornillo Port of Entry near El Paso, Texas, June 21, 2018 during a protest rally by several American mayors against the U.S. administration's family separation policy. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski /AFP/Getty Images)

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Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti confirmed Thursday that some of the 2,300 migrant children separated from their families at the border were in Los Angeles.

Garcetti was in Texas, where he joined a coalition of U.S. mayors protesting the separation of migrant children from their parents.

Representatives from the bipartisan United States Conference of Mayors held a press conference at the Tornillo Port of Entry along the U.S.-Mexico border, urging the Trump administration to work swiftly to reunite detained families that were separated under the administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy.

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The event was scheduled before President Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that partially rolls back the controversial policy, but Garcetti and fellow mayors expressed doubt about how much it would change immigrant detention practices at the border.

"It raises as many questions as it seeks to solve," he said. "It does nothing for those parents that are separated from their children today, and it doesn't say moving forward exactly what will be done."

Trump's order will essentially replace separated detention with family detention. But it's unclear what will happen to the thousands of immigrant families already disconnected. According to one administration official quoted in The New York Times, detained children won't be reuniting with their parents soon.

Garcetti also blasted the lack of communication and transparency between federal agencies and U.S. counties and cities, including L.A.

"We're having hundreds of children dropped into our city with no information, no links back to their parents," Garcetti said from the port of entry.


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