WASHINGTON — Lawyers working to reach the migrant families separated by the Trump administration have found the parents of 54 more children in the past month, according to a court filing on Wednesday.
Now the parents of 391 children have yet to be reached, down from 445 in April. And pro bono lawyers commissioned to find them by a federal judge say the parents of 227 of those children have been deported, 100 are somewhere in the U.S. and 14 have no contact information that the government has provided.
The Biden administration set up a task force to reunite separated parents, and the task force is working with the lawyers to bring back deported parents who have been identified. This month, the first four families were reunited.
The Trump administration separated more than 5,500 families during 2017 and 2018, the pro bono lawyers estimate. Most of those separated under what was known as the "zero tolerance" policy in May and June of 2018 were reunited soon after, but many separated prior to the official launch of zero tolerance were not known about because the government kept no records of their separation or whereabouts.
The Biden administration task force estimates roughly 1,000 families remain separated.
