ICE: Hundreds of migrant children still in custody with parents outside US

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials said Thursday in a court filing that the government still has more than 300 children in custody whose parents are outside the U.S.

The Department of Health and Human Services’s Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) maintains custody of 559 children in total, including 386 whose parents have already left the United States, according to the filing.

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Of the 386 children in custody whose parents are outside the U.S., 299 have parents with whom ORR officials have been in contact in the last week, while another 26 are still awaiting their parents’ review by authorities, according to the filing.

The filing pointed to a “significant” number of parents of the 559 children in custody who indicated no desire to be reunified with their children at the present time.

“After a review of case files, a significant number of already departed parents have indicated in some way that they do not wish to reunify with their children,” reads the joint status report from ICE and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which filed suit on behalf of a migrant parent.

“The proposed reunification plan for parents outside the U.S. will discuss collaborating and sharing information with the ACLU to verify these parents’ desires,” it added.

Just over 1,500 migrant children have been reunited with their families since the Trump administration in June halted the controversial process of separating children from their parents while the adults face prosecution for illegally entering the U.S.