Lawyers say they can't track down parents of 666 migrant kids — a higher number than previously reported

In October, lawyers who are trying to reunite migrant families separated at the U.S.-Mexico border stated that they haven't been able to track down the parents of 666 children, NBC News reports.

The parents were separated from their children in 2018 as part of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy. In a court filing from earlier in October, the lawyers said they had not yet found the parents of 545 children, as two-thirds had been deported to Central America without their children.

In an email to Justice Department attorneys obtained by NBC News, Steven Herzog, the lawyer leading efforts to reunite the families, wrote that the number increased from 545 children to 666 children because the new group includes those "for whom the government did not provide any phone number." He added that his team "would appreciate the government providing any available updated contact information, or other information that may be helpful in establishing contact for all 666 of these parents."

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The "zero tolerance" policy was in place from April to June 2018, with a pilot program beginning earlier in the El Paso sector. The organization Justice in Motion is searching in Mexico and Central America for the parents whose children remain in the United States, saying in a statement last month that it's "an arduous and time-consuming process on a good day." President-elect Joe Biden has promised to set up a government task force that will reunite the children with their parents.