The Trump administration said in a court filing Thursday that it has reunited 364 immigrant children between the ages of 5 and 17 that it identified as being separated from their parents at the border, one week before the deadline to complete the reunifications.
The administration said last week that it had identified 2,551 immigrant children who had been separated from their families at the border.
Officials said Thursday that they have identified 1,606 of the parents, and have interviewed and cleared 848 of them to be reunited with their children, according to the court filing.
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Another 272 of the parents still have to be interviewed. More than 200 had been released by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), while 264 remain in ICE custody.
The Justice Department filing also stated that 679 of the parents needed “further evaluation” to determine if they were possibly eligible for reunification. The filing indicated that 719 of the parents faced a “final order of removal.”
The government said in the filing that it would hand over on Friday a list of parents who are being held in ICE custody, and to release by Monday a list of parents who have been removed from the U.S.
The ACLU demanded in the filing that the Trump officials hand over information on the parents who have either been released from ICE custody, deported or face final removal orders.
The group alleged that the government has “not provided any plan for reuniting the parents who have been released from ICE custody,” despite saying that hundreds of the parents have been released.
The ACLU also said that it still has not received some information about parents who were separated from children under the age of 5 in order to verify that none of the parents were “improperly excluded.”
The immigrant families were separated at the border as a result of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, which called for prosecuting all adults who illegally cross the border.
President Trump signed an executive order last month to end the controversial practice of separating migrant children from their parents as the adults await prosecution.
A judge ordered Trump officials to complete the reunifications for children between the ages of 5 and 17 by July 26.
The administration had until July 10 to reunite immigrant children under the age of 5 with their families. Officials said they completed all eligible reunifications on July 12.