WHITE PLAINS – Westchester County Executive George Latimer is offering the county’s Social Services Department to assist the federal government with reunited children housed in the county with their families.
Under state law, county social services departments are required to have plans and systems in place to place children with family and relations once they have been removed from parents.
Latimer said the county social services department has the ability to link children with family members both in and out of the state.
The county’s Human Rights Commission, meanwhile, Friday, demanded that children separated from parents be “quickly reunited” with parents or family.
The county commission said even though a presidential executive order halted family separations, there is no plan to immediately reunite the kids with their families. “There is no plan to ensure families remain together in the immigration process. There is also no timeframe to end detention of individuals and families in the current immigration process,” the commission stated.
The county agency is “decrying the immoral practices of the indefinite separation of children from parents, and the indefinite detention of children, adults and families” and the members call on lawmakers to work together “to institute immediate family reunification and end indefinite detention of all individuals and families in the immigration process.”
The commission said, “We need a humane immigration system for the children and residents of Westchester County and this nation.”
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