Nearly 1,000 children separated from their parents at the U.S. border under the Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy on illegal immigration haven’t been reunited, federal data shows, despite a multiyear effort to do so.
The federal program has reunited 600 migrant children with their parents, according to numbers released by the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, the second anniversary of the establishment of the Family Reunification Task Force by President Biden soon after he assumed office.
Of the 998 children who remain separated from their families, 148 are in the process of being reunited, DHS said. The task force has also worked with nongovernmental organizations to inform 183 families of the opportunity to reunify.
“We understand that our critical work is not finished,” Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement Thursday.