Federal judge orders Trump administration to help locate 'missing' migrant parents

The Trump administration has until Wednesday to hand in a list of detailed information on each "missing" migrant parent who has yet to be reunited with their child, following the separation of 2,551 migrant families at the border, NBC News reports.

The federal judge overseeing the process gave the government a tepid commendation for successfully reuniting more than 1,400 migrant children with their parents, but said that officials must further explain what they will do in cases deemed "ineligible" for reunification. In more than 400 cases, the parents have already been deported without their children, and officials said Friday that there are a total of 650 children who are still in government custody. The family separations came as a result of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policy, enacted in May by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and walked back in June by President Trump.

The "ineligible" families were marked as such for various reasons, including parents with criminal records. In other cases, the Trump administration simply doesn't know where the parents are. Judge Dana Sabraw is requiring that the government provide all available information on every parent in order to help locate them, rather than wash their hands of responsibility now that the formal deadlines have passed.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

"The government is at fault for losing several hundred parents in the process, and that's where we have to go next," Sabraw said, per the Daily Intelligencer. ACLU lawyers working pro-bono to represent migrants will reportedly use the information to track down the "missing parents." Read more at NBC News.