Dozens Of Migrant Kids Reunited With Parents; Others Left In Detention Past Deadline | HuffPost

Dozens Of Migrant Kids Reunited With Parents; Others Left In Detention Past Deadline | HuffPost

The Trump administration reunited only four children under age 5 with the parents it separated them from at the border before Tuesday and expects to rejoin at least 34 others by the end of the day, according to documents filed in court.

A court had set Tuesday as the deadline for reunification of parents with children under 5, and July 26 for all kids taken from their parents at the border.

Seventy-one children are “likely eligible” to be reunited with their parents but have not yet been ― 51 of them with parents in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody who may be reunited on or soon after Tuesday, 12 whose parents were deported and eight whose parents were already released into the U.S. The reunification for families in which parents were already deported or released will take longer, the government said.

Judge Dana Sabraw, who ordered the reunification of families separated at the border, said in court on Tuesday that he was not extending the deadlines but accepted that some would not be done in time in certain cases.

He said the government should be able to reunite at least 63 families Tuesday or soon after. To do so more quickly, Sabraw said, the government should use a streamlined screening system for families it separated, rather than a longer process designed to approve sponsors for kids who come to the U.S. alone. DNA tests, which the government has been using in every case, are not needed if parents can show documentation, the judge said.