According to a government source familiar with the crisis, no protocols were put in place for the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services to track families who were broken apart, “leaving behind paper files, incomplete lists of names and a black hole.” There are no records of many deported parents’ locations, especially if they were fleeing violence in their home countries, says Michelle Brané, director of the migrant rights and justice program at the Women’s Refugee Commission. “Let’s not forget,” she tells me, “the government separated these families with really no plan for ­reunifying them.” (The administration is still seeking to harden immigration policy. In September, it moved to sidestep time limits on child detention. If approved, a new regulation would allow authorities to hold kids with their parents indefinitely until cases are resolved in immigration court.)