Only 364 Migrant Kids Out of 2,500+ Have Been Reunited With Parents
NOT GOOD ENOUGH
Court-ordered deadline just one week away.
Mike Blake / Reuters
Only 364 of more than 2,500 migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S. border with Mexico have been reunited—just one week away from a court-ordered deadline. In a court filing late Thursday, the Trump administration also revealed that of 1,607 parents eligible to be reunited with their children, 719 have final orders of deportation, meaning they may be removed from the country as soon as they are reunited with their children. Those parents would then face the unimaginable choice between bringing their child back to a potentially dangerous country or leaving them behind in the care of the Trump government. “That’s a pretty horrifying statistic,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, executive director of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, of the 719 figure. “We have had such limited communication with parents it was difficult to know where they were in their case.” She added that number was “way higher than I thought,” and said lawyers would need to make contact with reunited families to advise them on potential legal avenues to stay.