According to a court statement, lawyers were unable to contact the parents of 545 children who were separated from their families at the US border between 2017 and 2018. During this period, hundreds of parents were deported without their children.
To date, the Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) continue their efforts to reunite families separated by the Trump administration following the introduction of a zero-tolerance policy. The whereabouts of the deported adults are determined by a court-appointed “steering committee”: however, out of 1,030 children separated from their guardians, 545 have still not been found parents.
According to the court, «approximately two-thirds» of the adults were deported without children. The children were previously released from public care and almost all are now in the States under the supervision of temporary guardians.
While COVID-19 has thwarted family reunification efforts, human rights activists say they are still trying to find the deported parents.
“Following the suspension of searches due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have resumed searches for parents on a limited scale in areas where possible,” they said in an official statement.
