7A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 2018
US, ACLU divide on how to reunify separated families
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press
SAN DIEGO — The
Trump administration and
the American Civil Liberties
Union on Thursday revealed
widely divergent plans on how
to reunite hundreds of immi-
grant children with parents
who have been deported since
the families were separated at
the U.S.-Mexico border.
President Donald Trump’s
administration puts the onus
on the ACLU, asking that the
organization use its “consid-
erable resources” to find par-
ents in their home countries,
predominantly Guatemala, El
Salvador and Honduras. The
U.S. Justice Department said
in a court filing that the State
Department has begun talks
with foreign governments on
how the administration may
be able to aid the effort.
The ACLU, which sued on
behalf of separated parents,
called for the government to
take “significant and prompt
steps” to find the parents on
its own.
“Plaintiffs have made clear
that they will do whatever they
can to help locate the deported
parents, but emphasize that
the government must bear the
ultimate burden of finding the
parents,” the ACLU said in a
filing, pinning blame for “the
crisis” on the administration
and arguing it has far more
resources.
A decision on how to
bridge the differences falls
to U.S. District Judge Dana
Sabraw, who has ordered that
more than 2,500 children be
reunited with their families.
He was scheduled to speak
with both sides in a conference
call Friday.
As of Wednesday, 410 chil-
dren whose parents were out-
side the country were in the
custody of the U.S. Health and
Human Services Department.
The ACLU said it takes
“a degree of detective work”
to track down contact infor-
mation for deported parents,
some of whom may be hiding
from persecutors.
The group said the govern-
ment provided home-coun-
try addresses in U.S. immi-
gration databases with no
useful information for about
120 parents. Other addresses
had limited use — for exam-
ple, some had “calle sin nom-
bre” (“street without a name”)
or six addresses connected
to one Honduran child, all in
the Mexican city of San Luis
Potosi.
The proposals from both
sides come a week after a
court-imposed deadline to
reunite more than 2,500 chil-
dren who were separated from
their families at the border.
The administration also
asks that the ACLU consult
each deported parent to deter-
mine if they wish to waive
their right to be reunified with
their child, a scenario that may
occur if the parent wants the
child to remain in the U.S. The
U.S. would work with for-
eign governments “to deter-
mine how best to complete
reunifications.”
The ACLU proposes that
parents who want their chil-
dren sent back home be
reunited within a week and
that those who want to return
to the U.S. to pick up their kids
be permitted under humani-
tarian parole, with round-trip
transportation paid for by the
government.
There are also differences
about how to locate parents
who were released in the U.S.,
but they appear less stark. The
administration says it will
meet with the ACLU to dis-
cuss what information it can
provide, while the ACLU
requests specific details —
ranging from last known
phone number and copies of
birth certificates — as well
as volunteers to help find the
parents.
The government said last
week that it had returned all
1,800-plus children to parents
and sponsors who were “eli-
gible” for reunification. But it
said more than 700 adults were
not eligible because they were
in their home countries, have
been released from immigra-
tion custody, had red flags for
criminal records or other rea-
sons, chose not to be reunited,
or were still being reviewed.
On Wednesday, it said the
number of reunified children
neared 2,000 and nearly 600
remained separated, mostly
because their parents.
Sabraw ordered the gov-
ernment to submit written
updates every Thursday, indi-
cating he plans to keep a close
watch on the still-separated
families. Each update will be
followed by a telephone call
the next day with both sides.
In late June, Sabraw set
deadlines of July 10 to reunify
dozens of children under 5
with their families and July 26
to reunify children 5 and older.
Grocer: McDaniel took over grocery last summer
Continued from Page 1A
is important, since the USDA
has lost in federal court when
it denied an application from a
retailer convicted of marijuana
possession.
Permanent denials for lack
of business integrity are rela-
tively rare in the sprawling Sup-
plemental Nutrition Assistance
Program, commonly known as
SNAP, or food stamps.
In the fiscal year that ended
last September, the Food and
Nutrition Service permanently
denied 66 retailers for business
integrity and issued time-lim-
ited denials to 31 others. The
government approved applica-
tions for 23,421 retailers and
reauthorized another 44,764.
Across the country, more than
263,000 retailers are authorized
to participate in the food stamp
program.
Most food stamps — 82
percent — are redeemed by
consumers at supermarkets or
superstores, but small grocery
stores like the Astoria Down-
town Market have a role.
“These guys are the gap-fill-
ers,” said Andrew Tapp, a Flor-
ida attorney who is helping
McDaniel. “So if you start lim-
iting them, then you’re having
huge problems with what the
underserved community actu-
ally gets for food.”
Tapp, who specializes in food
stamp-related legal disputes,
argues that a past drug convic-
tion a decade before McDan-
iel owned the grocery is not
reasonably related to his busi-
ness integrity today. The gov-
ernment’s screening of retailers
is meant to uncover past fraud
in business-related activity, he
said, not drug offenses.
“This disqualification is tan-
tamount to a jail sentence in
one state for a speeding ticket
incurred in another state,” Tapp
wrote to the administrative
review officer.
McDaniel, who took over the
grocery last summer, thinks his
lawsuit could help other small
grocers who have been denied
under similar circumstances.
“It should help other people
that get into situations like me
that are just trying to give up on
their past and do good for them-
selves and their community,” he
said.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Two investigations are underway at the Northwest Oregon
Housing Authority, which promotes low-income housing.
Email: Investigations are
expected to be completed
within the next 10 days
Zilli:
‘I’m not
coming
... with an
agenda’
Continued from Page 1A
Continued from Page 1A
“I’m not coming there
specifically with an agenda
to change things,” Zilli
said. “It’s more that meth-
odology of understand-
ing complicated issues and
knowing who’s affected by
them.”
Herman has pointed
to Astoria’s housing scar-
city and riverfront develop-
ment as some of her main
issues. After hearing mur-
murs from a friend, she was
not surprised Zilli entered
the race.
“I would’ve been sur-
prised if someone hadn’t,”
Herman said. “I wish I
could not do campaigning
and just walk into the seat,
but I knew that wouldn’t be
the case.”
Both candidates said
they don’t know much
about each other. Her-
man said, however, that
she “completely agreed”
with Zilli about the Verizon
tower.
“I’m just going to let
folks know who I am and
what I stand for, and I’ll
rely on that,” Herman said.
Colin Murphey/The Daily Astorian
Workers at Buoy Beer Co. use refillable bottles in order to lower the company’s carbon footprint.
Buoy Beer: ‘Cost ... is going to be worth it’
Continued from Page 1A
Bottles recycled locally are
usually crushed in the redemp-
tion machine, sorted in Port-
land by color, crushed further
at Owens-Illinois’ plant into
cullet, melted at 3,000 degrees
Fahrenheit with new material
and turned into new containers.
The company has estimated
that making and shipping a new
glass bottle requires more than
0.1 kilograms of carbon dioxide
on average. The impact is even
lower than the 0.4 kilograms of
carbon dioxide per container the
company estimates is required
to create and ship new cans.
“A lot of people are look-
ing at cans as an environmen-
tal option, but the metal gets
shipped to Alabama for smelt-
ing,” Schoening said.
Owens-Illinois estimates the
carbon footprint of each refill-
able bottle at .006 kilograms
of carbon dioxide after 30 uses.
The bottles, made from about
70 percent recycled glass, are
taken to the collective’s sort-
ing facility and shipped to Mis-
soula, Montana-based Bayern
Brewing, another participant
in the BottleDrop Refill pro-
gram and the closest brewery
with a suitable bottle-wash-
ing machine. The cleaned bot-
tles are shipped back to Oregon
and sold to breweries at a mar-
ket-based rate.
“There’s definitely a higher
cost to start out, especially
being the first ones to put them
on the shelves,” Kroening said
of buying the new bottles. “The
actual cost we think is going to
be worth it because of the sus-
tainability of the bottle.”
Widmer Brothers, Gigan-
tic, GoodLife, Double Moun-
tain, Wild Ride and Rock Bot-
tom breweries are all taking part
with Buoy to varying degrees.
The hope is that as more brew-
eries come online, and as bot-
tles are recirculated, the econ-
omy of scale will help drive the
price down, Schoening said.
The collective anticipates
opening its own washing sta-
tion in the Portland metro area
in 2020.
DiCianni told Sims, who
was on leave at that point,
that she forwarded the email
to Lee and Johnston.
Nearly a month later,
Sims sent another email to
DiCianni about a story in
The Daily Astorian that pub-
licized the investigation into
the deputy director. In the
email, Sims asked what was
being done about her com-
plaint from May about John-
ston and why the agency
decided to “publicly attack”
her in the story.
“I find it very concerning
and the timing a bit odd that
I am contacted by a news-
paper reporter within hours
of the July 12th NOHA
Board meeting and the very
next day my name is being
maligned publicly in The
Daily Astorian; as well as a
news story on the local radio
station being played over and
over and over again,” Sims
wrote. “I am sure the NOHA
Board is investigating the
serious issues I have brought
to their attention. I would
appreciate an update as to
what is being done in regards
to that matter.”
DiCianni said she did not
reply to Sims after the latest
email and forwarded it to Lee
and Johnston the next day.
She resigned later that week
after serving 10 months on
the board.
“I don’t know why she
singled out that commis-
sioner,” Johnston said. “That
commissioner was the new-
est commissioner and the
least experienced one. I don’t
know why complaints were
not sent right to the board
chairman.”
Sims could not imme-
diately be reached for
comment.
The investigations into
Sims and Johnston, which
have taken longer than
expected, are expected to
cost $2,300, Johnston said.
The agency offers rental
assistance and owns and
manages low-income hous-
ing in Clatsop, Tillamook
and Columbia counties.
Sims’ lengthy career with
the housing authority has
predated that of Johnston.
Her purview includes human
resources and day-to-day
functions of the federal hous-
ing choice voucher program
staff.
Lee said the investiga-
tions are expected to be com-
pleted within the next 10
days. The board will then
discuss the results in an exec-
utive session, likely at the
next monthly meeting in
September.
“At the next meeting,
we’ll solve this,” Lee said.
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