Parents of 545 children separated at US border still not found

Rights groups have been searching for parents by going door to door in Mexico and Central America. Despite a federal judge’s order that the government reunite families who had been separated at the United States-Mexico border under the Trump administration’s “no tolerance” migration policy, the parents of 545 children still have not been found. According to a court document filed on Tuesday by the US Justice Department and the American Civil Liberties Union, the children were separated between July 1, 2017, and June 26, 2018, when a federal judge in San Diego ordered that children in government custody be reunited with their parents. More than 2,700 children were separated from their parents in June 2018 when US District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered an end to the practice under a “zero-tolerance” policy to criminally prosecute every adult who entered the country illegally from Mexico. “Many of the deported parents who are still separated, once we found them, in explaining our role in helping to reunite them, it’s hard for them to believe that anyone in the US is willing to help.” The steering committee has also promoted toll-free phone numbers in Spanish to reach families.