- The federal government said Thursday it had reunited hundreds of separated families by a court-ordered deadline.
- The government said 1,820 children were reunited either with parents or other relatives, while 711 were deemed "ineligible" for reunification.
- Of those 711 children, more than 400 of them have parents who have already been deported, and lawyers allege that the government has "not laid out anything close to a plan" to find them.
The federal government announced Thursday it had reunited more than 1,400 separated immigrant families by the court-imposed deadline, but found more than 700 "ineligible" for immediate reunification, the Justice Department said in a court filing Thursday.
The Trump administration separated thousands of immigrant parents from their children at the border in recent months under its "zero tolerance" immigration policy, and was ordered by a judge to reunite them by July 26.
The government had originally identified 2,551 children between the ages of five and 17 who had been separated, and said 1,637 were eligible for reunification.
Here's the government's breakdown of what's happening with those children:
- 20 children were found to have not been separated from their parents
- 1,442 children were reunited with parents in ICE custody
- 378 children were reunited either with parents who were released from ICE custody, or with other sponsors or relatives
- 711 children were deemed "not eligible" for reunification
Here's the government's breakdown of the 711 children deemed ineligible:
- 120 children's parents "waived reunification"
- 7 children's reunifications were "precluded by plaintiffs and court order in separate litigation"
- 21 children's parents raised "red flags" in their background checks
- 46 children's parents raised "red flags" from other case file reviews
- 79 children's parents were released from ICE custody and are in the US
- 431 children's parents are "outside the US" and may have been deported
- 94 children's parents locations haven't been found
The number of ineligible children has been the subject of some debate — particularly the parents who waived their rights to reunifications.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which sued the government over the separations, filed dozens of pages of allegations on Wednesday from lawyers who said immigrant parents were often misled about the waiver forms or intimidated into signing them.
The lawyers said that many of the immigrant parents could not read or did not understand the documents they signed, or were told by officials that the forms would reunite them with their children, when they actually said the opposite.
The 431 parents "outside the US" and likely deported have also prompted concern about their reunifications.
The ACLU's Lee Gelernt told reporters on a conference call Thursday that it will take tremendous detective-work to locate those parents in their home countries, educate them on their rights, and find a way to reunite them with their children.
"It's not going to be easy. We're just going to have to do the best we can," Gelernt said, adding that the government has "not laid out anything close to a plan."
In a separate conference call Thursday, government officials said that the parents who were deported without their children had an opportunity to reunite with them before they were deported, but chose not to.
"The reason these parents are coming here in the first place … is because they want their children here," said Matthew Albence, a top Immigration and Customs Enforcement official. "And once they're here, they might not want to give up their opportunity to have those children here."
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