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Complaint: Immigration Officials Coerced Parents Into Signing Deportation Forms

Parents were allegedly told that if they did not sign the papers, they would never see their children again.

U.S. immigration officials allegedly coerced some parents who were separated from their children under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy into signing forms—including ones they didn’t understand—by saying they would never see their children again unless they signed the documents, according to a complaint filed to the Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Thursday. BuzzFeed News reports that the complaint, which was filed by the American Immigration Council and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, includes accusations that some parents were told to sign forms “abandoning their rights to reunification” and to sign deportation papers if they wanted to see their child again. Parents say they were not told of the other options available to them when confronted with “pre-completed” forms. Some parents also allege that they were separated from their children a second time when they refused to sign the filled-out documents. More than 2,500 children were separated from their parents while the family-separation policy was in place.