On the two year anniversary of President Biden establishing the Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families, the US Department of Homeland Security Thursday released a factsheet about the efforts that have been made to identify and reunite children with their families, who were separated under the Trump administration.
The factsheet indicated that the Task Force has reunited more than 600 children who were separated from their families under the prior administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy. The Task Force identified 3,924 children who were separated between January 20 2017, and January 20 2021. As of February 2023, 2,926 separated children had been reunified, either before the establishment of the Task Force or through the leadership of the Task Force.
Of the 998 children yet to be reunited, 148 children are in the process of reunification and 183 families have been informed of the opportunity to reunify by a contracted NGO. The Task Force has also provided 735 families with behavioral health case management services and provided 385 families with behavioral health assessments and treatment. This work has been carried out using a combination of US government records and coordination with NGO partners.
In an accompanying statement released by Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas, he emphasized:
We understand that our critical work is not finished […] We remain steadfast in our commitment to fulfill President Biden’s pledge to reunify all children who were separated from their families under the “zero-tolerance” policy to the greatest extent possible, and we continue to work diligently to incorporate the foundational principle of family unity in our policies and operations.
