Refugees, Resettlement And Reunification

WAMU 88.5

Published July 26, 2018 at 10:30 AM EDT

A father and son walk together as they are cared for in an Annunciation House facility after they were reunited with each other on July 25, 2018 in El Paso, Texas. The two were reunited at an I.C.E processing center after being separated when they tried to cross into the United States.

The Justice Department says it will meet the court-ordered deadline of July 26 to reunify roughly 1,600 eligible families that were separated from their children at the border.

But the Justice Department also says 463 parents may have been already deported, meaning they won’t be reunited with their children by the deadline.

And we continue to learn more about what has happened to the children who were separated from their families at the border.

At least one separated child who, like many others, crossed the border alone, was held overnight in a vacant office building, according to Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting.

The building had no kitchen, only a few bathrooms, and darkened windows, and was not licensed to hold children. The facility was discovered by a concerned neighbor, who was originally concerned that children were being trafficked.

Read the entire investigation here

If the Trump administration misses the deadline for reunification, what happens to these children? We look at the current status of families at the border and what’s next for them.

GUESTS

Yeganeh Torbati, Immigration reporter, Reuters; @yjtorbati

For more, visit https://the1a.org.