The Biden administration has identified more than 3,900 children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border under the Trump administration’s zero tolerance policy.
Officials said Tuesday its Family Reunification Task Force identified 3,913 children, almost all of whom were separated from July 1, 2017 to the end of Trump’s presidency in January.
The task force report provides one of the most detailed accounts of a policy that was widely denounced.
Although the task force said it identified “nearly all” the children, it also said it would review an additional 1,723 cases that would raise the total closer to the American Civil Liberty Union’s tally of 5,636.
The difference appears to be primarily due to a federal court decision in the Pacific coast U.S. city of San Diego that omitted 1,723 children for reasons unrelated to Trump’s zero-tolerance policy.
The task force said it would also seek to verify if children were separated during the first six months of Trump's presidency, which began in January 2017. That period was not included in the ACLU lawsuit.
The Biden administration has promised to reunite children who are still separated from their parents, but the pace has so far been slow.
