Nearly all migrant children in the custody of Customs and Border Patrol will be reunited with the adult family members they were apprehended with by this coming Sunday, Trump administration officials claim.
According to CBS News’ David Begnaud, CBP, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, expects to reunite “all unaccompanied children in their custody who were separated from adults who were being prosecuted … with their families” this weekend.
BREAKING: As of Sunday, June 24, US Border Patrol expects that “all unaccompanied children in their custody who were separated from adults who were being prosecuted will have been reunited with their families,” according to a US administration official.
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) June 22, 2018
The officials noted that children separated from accompanying adults for “reasons other than [the Trump administration’s] zero tolerance policy will remain separated.”
President Trump’s Wednesday executive order prevents the separation of illegal immigrant family units apprehended between official ports of entry, yet still allows for children to be separated from accompanying adults “when there is a concern that detention of an alien child with the child’s alien parent would pose a risk to the child’s welfare.”
[Also read: 301 migrants who arrived at border over past seven months not family units: DHS]
“There will be a small number of children who were separated for reasons other than zero tolerance that will remain separated,” CBS News is told by the official. Usually that involves cases where a child alleges abuse by the adult or the adult is accused of separate violent crime
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) June 22, 2018
Begnaud added that, as of Friday evening, CBP allegedly no longer has any “unaccompanied children in their custody who were separated from adults.”
BREAKING: As of now, @cbp no longer has any kids, who were separated from their parents under “zero tolerance”, in their custody. More than 500 kids have been reunified with their parents, according to the official who added: there’s 0 chance we’ll be able to film a reunification
— David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) June 22, 2018
It should be noted that the reunification report does not appear to apply to the thousands of migrant children currently in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services at various detention centers.
The Trump administration announced Thursday evening that roughly 500 apprehended children had been reunited with their family units.
CBP did not immediately respond to inquiries from the Washington Examiner on how and where the family reunifications will take place.
