Lidia Karine Souza, a Brazilian mom seeking asylum in the United States, finally saw her 9-year-old son at a Chicago shelter. Now she wants him back full-time. AP Video by Martha Irvine. (June 28)
CHICAGO (AP) — The Latest on immigrant parents and children separated at the U.S. border (all times local):
11:10 a.m.
Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden says he would vote against the nomination of Lynn Johnson as assistant Health and Human Services secretary for family support because of concern over how her past policies as a state child welfare official could bear on her handling of the situation of thousands of children in detention at the border.
The position includes heading the department's Administration for Children and Families and the Office of Refugee Settlement, which has custody over the children being held near the U.S.-Mexico border who were separated from their parents seeking asylum.
Wyden is a Democrat and said Thursday that Johnson, who headed Colorado's child welfare program, "green-lighted a law allowing foster kids to be placed in juvenile detention facilities."
Wyden made the statement at a Senate Finance Committee hearing on the nominee for new IRS commissioner. Wyden is the senior Democrat on the panel.
During an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in Evanston, Illinois, Lidia Karine Souza, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, flips through her phone at photographs of her and her son Diogo as she talks about the ordeal she has lived in searching for and finally seeing her son for the first time on Tuesday. It took Souza weeks to find Diogo after he was taken from her at the Texas border in late May and sent by the government to a Chicago shelter. Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
During an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in Evanston, Illinois, Lidia Karine Souza, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, sheds a tear as she talks about the ordeal she has lived in searching for and finally seeing her son for the first time on Tuesday. It took Souza weeks to find Diogo after he was taken from her at the Texas border in late May and sent by the government to a Chicago shelter. Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
In this Tuesday, June 26, 2018 photo provided by paralegal Luana Mazon, Lidia Karine Souza, 27, hugs her 9-year-old son Diogo De Olivera Filho as Souza visited her son for the first time since they were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border in late May. Her son remained in custody, much of it quarantined in a room because he had the chicken pox, and she has been told the soonest the boy could be released is late July. She filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration. An emergency hearing is scheduled for Thursday. (Courtesy of Luana Mazon via AP) Photo: Luana Mazon, AP / Courtesy of Luana Mazon
After an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in Evanston, Ill., Lidia Karine Souza, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, shows a tattoo id her son's name as she talks about the ordeal she has lived in searching for and finally seeing her son for the first time on Tuesday. It took Souza weeks to find Diogo after he was taken from her at the Texas border in late May and sent by the government to a Chicago shelter. An emergency hearing is scheduled Thursday morning in which Souza's attorneys, including those from the law offices of Jeff Goldman Immigration in Boston, will argue that the government is imposing unlawful requirements for the reunification of parents with their children. Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
After an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in Evanston, Ill., Lidia Karine Souza, center, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, huddles with her legal team, attorney Jesse Bless, left, and paralegal Luana Mazon, after talking about the ordeal she has lived in searching for and finally seeing her son for the first time on Tuesday. An emergency hearing is scheduled Thursday morning in which Souza's attorneys, including those from the law offices of Jeff Goldman Immigration in Boston, will argue that the government is imposing unlawful requirements for the reunification of parents with their children. Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
After an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in Evanston, Ill., Lidia Karine Souza, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, poses for a portrait after talking about the ordeal she has lived in searching for and finally seeing her son for the first time on Tuesday. An emergency hearing is scheduled Thursday morning in which Souza's attorneys, including those from the law offices of Jeff Goldman Immigration in Boston, will argue that the government is imposing unlawful requirements for the reunification of parents with their children. Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
During an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, June 27, 2018, in Evanston, Ill., Lidia Karine Souza, who is seeking asylum from Brazil, poses for a portrait after talking about the ordeal she has lived in searching for and finally seeing her son for the first time on Tuesday. An emergency hearing is scheduled Thursday morning in which Souza's attorneys, including those from the law offices of Jeff Goldman Immigration in Boston, will argue that the government is imposing unlawful requirements for the reunification of parents with their children. Photo: Charles Rex Arbogast, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Migrant parents including Iris, from Honduras, left, Gustavo, from Guatamala, standing in green, Wilson Romero, from Honduras, standing, and Christian, from Honduras, seated in gray, socialize outside the Annunciation House, Tuesday, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. Thirty-two parents separated from their children are staying at the home as they wait to be reunited with their children. If the Trump administration has any hope of complying with a judge's order to reunite thousands of migrant children and parents within 30 days, it's going to have to clear away the red tape and confusion many immigrants have encountered so far. Photo: Matt York, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
A migrant parent wears an ankle monitor bracelet above his donated flip-flops at the Annunciation House, Tuesday, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. Thirty-two parents separated from their children are staying at the home as they wait to be reunited with their children. If the Trump administration has any hope of complying with a judge's order to reunite thousands of migrant children and parents within 30 days, it's going to have to clear away the red tape and confusion many immigrants have encountered so far. Photo: Matt York, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Carla, second from left, from El Salvador, holds a package containing batteries and accessories for her ankle monitoring bracelet, seen on her left ankle, as she socializes with other migrant mothers at the Annunciation House, Tuesday, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. Thirty-two parents separated from their children are staying at the home as they wait to be reunited with their children. If the Trump administration has any hope of complying with a judge's order to reunite thousands of migrant children and parents within 30 days, it's going to have to clear away the red tape and confusion many immigrants have encountered so far. Photo: Matt York, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Ruben Garcia, director of the Annunciation House, speaks with migrant parents Tuesday, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. The migrants are some of the 32 parents separated from their children that are staying at the home as they wait to be reunited with their children. If the Trump administration has any hope of complying with a judge's order to reunite thousands of migrant children and parents within 30 days, it's going to have to clear away the red tape and confusion many immigrants have encountered so far. Photo: Matt York, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Migrant parents talk at the Annunciation House, Tuesday, June 26, 2018, in El Paso, Texas. Thirty-two parents separated from their children are staying at the home as they wait to be reunited with their children. If the Trump administration has any hope of complying with a judge's order to reunite thousands of migrant children and parents within 30 days, it's going to have to clear away the red tape and confusion many immigrants have encountered so far. Photo: Matt York, AP / Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
The Latest: Oregon senator opposes nominee for HHS post
The committee had been scheduled to vote on the nominations of Johnson and three other officials, but not enough senators were present.
11 a.m.
A federal judge in Chicago has declined to rule immediately on the release of a 9-year-old Brazilian boy who was separated from his mother at the U.S.-Mexico border.
Another judge on Tuesday ordered the government to reunite more than 2,000 immigrant children with their families within 30 days, or 14 days for those younger than 5.
The same day, lawyers for Lidia Karine Souza filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to demand the release of her son, Diogo.
Judge Manish Shah said Thursday that he would "like to give it some thought" but he could issue a ruling later in the day.
Diogo has spent four weeks at a shelter in Chicago. Souza has applied for asylum and was released from a facility in Texas June 9.
10:40 a.m.
Federal officers in Portland have moved to reopen a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office that has been closed for more than a week because of an occupation by activists.
Federal Protective Service spokesman Rob Sperling said in a statement that law enforcement began clearing a camp of demonstrators at dawn Thursday. Media reports say officers took some protesters into custody.
There have been no reports of violence.
The group rallying under the moniker Occupy ICE PDX began its round-the-clock demonstration June 17. Protesters want to abolish the agency and end the Trump administration's zero-tolerance immigration policy.
Officials closed the office a few days into the occupation because of safety concerns.
On Monday, they warned protesters to stop blocking entrances.
9:10 a.m.
A group of Democrats in Congress is proposing legislation directed at giving lawmakers more access to government shelters housing immigrant children.
Democrats have pushed for more access to facilities holding immigrants, especially after the Trump administration started to broadly separate families crossing the southern U.S. border.
In some cases, they've been turned away from facilities they have tried to visit or denied access to immigrants being held.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon co-sponsored the proposal released Thursday.
The bill would require "immediate access" for any member of Congress to a federal facility unless national security restrictions applied.
Castro and Wyden say they want to ensure that children "already suffering trauma" are being treated humanely.
8:40 a.m.
Washington state authorities have ordered protesters to dismantle their tent structures outside the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, where detainees from the southern border crisis are being held.
The Tacoma News Tribune reports that Tacoma police issued the 24-hour notice requiring the protesters to dismantle any structures they erected that are in violation of Tacoma Municipal Code, including tents, canopies, gazebos, sunshades, tarps and temporary restroom facilities.
Since Saturday, people have gathered to protest the federal government for detaining migrants — separating them from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border — while the adults await immigration processing.
On Tuesday, there were 160 protesters, including 10 people were arrested in a confrontation with Tacoma police officers.
A spokesman for the protesters says they won't move and called the order a scare tactic.
1 a.m.
Lawyers for a Brazilian immigrant plan to go forward with an emergency hearing in federal court in Chicago to get the woman's 9-year-old son back.
Lidia Karine Souza has been separated from her son since they illegally crossed into the U.S. from Mexico in late May. The hearing is set for Thursday.
She says she has filled out 40 pages of documents but that officials are setting more requirements, telling her the rules have changed.
She searched for weeks to find Diogo after the two were separated at the border in late May. She was released June 9 from a Texas facility.
Souza's attorneys on Tuesday filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to demand her son be immediately released.
He has spent four weeks at a government-contracted shelter in Chicago, much of it alone in a room, quarantined with chicken pox.