Washington, June 16 : The US government has separated at least 2,000 children from parents at the Mexico border since implementing a policy that results in such family separations, the Department of Homeland Security(DHS) has confirmed.

From April 19 through May 31 of this year, 1,995 minors travelling with 1,940 adults who said they were the children's guardians were separated due to the policy, CNN quoted DHS spokesman Jonathan Hoffman as saying on Friday.

According to Hoffman, the call was largely to defend the administration's decision to charge every adult caught crossing the border illegally with federal crimes, as opposed to referring those with children mainly to immigration courts, as previous administrations did.

Because the government is charging the parents in the criminal justice system, children are separated from them, with no clear procedure for their reunification aside from hotlines the parents can call to try to track their children down.

The policy to refer all adults for charges was publicly announced on May 7, though the Justice Department announced it would prosecute 100 per cent of the cases referred to it at the beginning of April.

"We make decisions based on the ability to detain and the ability of courts to take these cases, but we no longer exempt categories or classes of individuals," a DHS official said.

"By and large, we are accepting nearly all of the referrals that we get from our counterparts at DHS, we continue to work with the federal judiciary on practical solutions to differing caps that they have," CNN quoted a Justice Department official as saying.

"In terms of declining prosecution, we're not going to get into specifics." The UN has called on the US to immediately halt the separations, the BBC reported.

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Bengaluru, Dec 26: A Japanese national, Hiroshi Sasaki, who works in Bengaluru, lost Rs 35.5 lakh after being 'digitally arrested' by cyber fraudsters, police said, on Thursday.

 

The incident occurred between December 12 and 14, police added.

Sasaki, who lives in a flat near Dairy Circle, received a phone call on December 12. The caller was claiming to be from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The caller informed him that his phone number would be blocked due to its unauthorised use.

To avoid the disconnection Sasaki was asked to dial a number.

Upon dialling the number, he was immediately connected to a WhatsApp call from someone claiming to be from the Cyber Crime wing of Mumbai Police. The caller informed Sasaki that he was involved in a money laundering case.

The fraudsters "digitally arrested" him and siphoned off Rs 35.5 lakh by having him make payments through various means, including RTGS.

He was also told that the money would be returned after the investigation was completed.

After realising that he had been duped, the victim approached the South East Cyber Crimes, Economics and Narcotics (CEN) police station and lodged a complaint.

'Digital arrest' is a new cyber fraud, where the fraudster poses as law enforcement agency officials from agencies like CBI, and customs and threatens people of arrest by making video calls.

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