Lawyers track down parents of 54 more migrant children separated during Trump administration

A family crosses the border into the United States. — (Image credit: Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

In the last month, lawyers working to reunite migrant families separated at the southern border during the Trump administration were able to connect 54 more children with their parents, NBC News reports.

In a court filing submitted on Wednesday, the lawyers said they are still trying to find the parents of 391 migrant children. Of those children, they know that 227 have parents who were deported, 100 have parents still in the United States, and 14 do not have any contact information. Soon after his inauguration, President Biden set up a task force to work with the lawyers and help bring back deported parents for reunification.

The lawyers estimate that in 2017 and 2018, the Trump administration separated more than 5,500 families. The administration's "zero tolerance" policy was officially in effect during May and June 2018, and most of the families separated at that time were reunited not long after. For those split apart before then, the government did not keep any records of their separations or where the parents and children ended up, NBC News reports.

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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.