It could take up to two years for the U.S. to reunite families separated at the border

U.S.-Mexico border.
(Image credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Tim O'Donnell
By
published

The Trump administration says it may need up to two years to find potentially thousands of children who were separated from their parents at the southern border when the White House was operating under a "zero tolerance" policy, prosecuting all those who crossed the border illegally before a judge put an end to the practice last year.

In a court filing on Friday, the Department of Justice said that it will take at least one year to review about 47,000 cases of unaccompanied minors taken into government custody between July 1, 2017 and June 25, 2018. But the task is expected to be difficult, especially because the children are no longer in government custody. Per The Associated Press, the government will prioritize locating and reuniting children who are not currently living with relatives.

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Tim O'Donnell
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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