Where are the children?

Where are the children, and why haven't they been reunited with their parents yet?

The Trump administration said in a court filing late Thursday that it has reunified 364 of more than 2,500 migrant children separated from their parents at the U.S. southern border, just one week out from a court-ordered deadline. 

Of 1,607 parents eligible to be reunited with their children, the filing said, 719 have final orders of deportation, meaning they could be removed from the country as soon as they are reunited. Those parents may have to choose between bringing their child back to a violent country or leaving them behind in the care of the government, nonprofits, foster families or relatives in order to seek asylum in the United States. 

“That’s a pretty horrifying statistic,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, Executive Director of 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.”  

Toczylowski said the number was “way higher than I thought,” and said attorneys would need to immediately make contact with reunited families to advise them on potential legal avenues to stay in the United States.