Officials from US President Donald Trump’s administration late on Saturday said that the US government knows the location of all children in its custody after separating them from their families at the border and is working to reunite them.
A fact sheet on “zero-tolerance prosecution and family reunification” released by the US Department of Homeland Security said that a parent must request that their child be deported with them.
In the past, many parents have elected to be deported without their children, the agency said.
Photo: EPA
That might be a reflection of violence or persecution they could face in their home countries.
As part of the effort, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have posted notices in all its facilities advising detained parents who are trying to find or communicate with their children to call a hotline staffed from 8am to 8pm on Monday through Friday.
The fact sheet did not state how long it might take to reunite families.
The Port Isabel Service Processing Center in Texas has been set up as the staging ground for the families to be reunited before deportation.
How the US government would reunite families has been unclear, because the families are first stopped by US Customs and Border Patrol, with children taken into custody by the US Health and Human Services and adults detained by ICE.
Children have been sent to shelters around the US, raising alarm that parents might never know where their children are.
Trump on Wednesday ordered the practice of separating parents and their children to stop.
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