Jill Biden will reportedly play a role in migrant family reunification
First lady Jill Biden intends on taking an active role in a Biden administration task force set up to reunite migrant children and their parents who were separated at the southern border during the Trump era, three people familiar with the matter told CNN.
In 2017 and 2018, under the Trump administration's zero tolerance policy, several thousand migrant children were separated from their parents. A federal judge instructed advocacy groups and law firms to find the parents so they can be reunited with their children, but according to the latest court filing, they have been unable to reach the parents of 611 kids.
Michael LaRosa, a spokesman for Biden, told CNN on Wednesday that the first lady's chief of staff, Julissa Reynoso, will "monitor the federal reunification effort given her background as a lawyer." President Biden is expected to announce the creation of a reunification task force in the near future, and a person familiar with the matter told CNN that high-ranking officials from the Health and Human Services Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the State Department will lead the effort.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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