Biden Administration Begins ‘Long Haul’ of Reuniting Migrant Families Separated Under Trump

This week, the Biden administration announced that the parents from four different families who were deported to Central America and Mexico without their children under former President Donald Trump will be allowed to cross the border and rejoin their children in the United States.

The families are the first to be reunited in the U.S. since President Biden issued an executive order in February to create a task force dedicated to repairing families torn apart as a result of his predecessor’s controversial family separation policy. The task force, which is led by Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, estimates that the number of families who remain separated is over 1,000.

Prior to the creation of the Biden administration’s task force, a court-appointed steering committee of law firms and nongovernmental organizations had been responsible for identifying and tracking down members of families who were believed to be separated during that pilot program.

According to Leah Chavla, a senior policy adviser at the Women’s Refugee Commission, one of the organizations on the court-appointed steering committee, those efforts are ongoing.

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