(Image source from: The Hill)

The magistrate handling the lawsuit of proponents of immigrant rights, who are banking on a case pending in San Diego to force the Trump administration to reunify undocumented migrant parents with their separated children at the border, signaled on Friday that he did not plan to take action until next Wednesday at the soonest.

During a telephone hearing, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union pleaded United States District Court Judge Dana Sabraw to act rapidly to mitigate the damage being done by the surge in family separations caused after the Trump administration initiated a zero-tolerance policy aimed at charging all adults who cross the border illicitly.

"There are about 2,000 kids now who have been separated," the attorney, Lee Gelernt, said in an emotional presentation. "They are range from little babies, less than a year old, to toddlers to young children and they are suffering immeasurably. Every night, we are hearing stories about children going to sleep asking whether they're ever going to see their parents again, clutching pictures of their parents. It's just become a complete mess with a thousand, over 2,000 people separated. Parents can’t find the children. I think it's, you know, a humanitarian crisis of the utmost proportion."

Sabraw was urged to "tonight or over the weekend," by Gelernt necessitate the authorities to get together all children younger than 5 within 10 days, and older children within 30 days.

"There is really an urgent need to set a timetable," the American Civil Liberties Union said. "They tell the parents, 'We're just taking the child for a bath,' and the child is never seen again. The situation is simply intolerable at this point."

Sabraw, an appointee of President George W. Bush, made unsubtle that he had seen many of the news reports about tormented parents separated from their children. However, the judge said he was ill at ease ruling based on news stories lone.

The class-action suit filed by the ACLU in February is overseen by a judge, over asylum seekers being separated from their children.

While the ACLU pressed for immediate action, Sabraw said he wanted new filings from both sides in the case, with the civil liberties group submitting more details and a proposed injunction by Monday and the federal government responding by Wednesday. "It's still very expedited," the judge said, adding that he hoped to rule "shortly" after those filings were complete.

The San Diego's case proceeding came amid precariousness regarding judicial challenges to Trump's new family detention policy.

By Sowmya Sangam