Court filing: US gov’t unable to reach parents of 506 children separated at border

Updated: Feb 24, 2021 / 06:15 PM CST

FILE – In this June 17, 2018, file photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, people who’ve been taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the United States, sit in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas. A federal judge on Thursday, Oct. 22, 2020, urged the Trump administration to do more to help court-appointed researchers find hundreds of parents who were separated from their children after they crossed the U.S.-Mexico border beginning in 2017. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Rio Grande Valley Sector via AP, File)

SAN DIEGO (NewsNation Now) — A new court filing reveals the U.S. government has been unable to reach the parents of 506 children who were separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border during former President Donald Trump’s administration.

That figure is down from a month ago when attorneys said they were looking for the parents of 611 children.

The parents of 506 children fall into three groups, according to the filing:

“First, there are approximately 322 children whose parents are believed to have been removed from the United States following separation from their children, and our efforts to locate them in their country of origin are ongoing.”
“Second, there is a group of approximately 168 children whose parents are believed to be in the United States, and efforts to locate them in the United States are also ongoing.”

“Third, there is a group of 16 children for whom the government has not provided a phone number for the parent, child, sponsor or attorney.”

President Joe Biden signed nine executive actions on immigration during his first two weeks in office. The moves aims to review and reverse regulations, policies and guidance of former President Trump’s policies to deter immigration, both legal and illegal.

The full court filing is below.