Almost two years ago, Representative Zoe Lofgren of California appeared at a community meeting to address what she called the “egregious situation” at the U.S. border with Mexico. Lofgren, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on immigration and citizenship, said the U.S. government was taking toddlers from migrant parents and sending them “who knows where.”

Last week a government report confirmed that, in a startling number of cases, not even the government knows where.

“The decision to move forward and intentionally harm children and parents through family separation amounts to criminal action, and at the very least criminal negligence,” Michelle Brane, an expert on migrants’ rights at the Women’s Refugee Commission, said over email.