Half of the roughly 100 children under the age of five who have been separated from their families will not be reunited with their families, The Department of Homeland Security announced on Thursday.
A federal judge ordered that the government must reunite 103 children under the age of 5 who were separated from their parents after crossing the U.S. border illegally. On Thursday, the government admitted that 57 have been reunited, while 46 remain ineligible because “safety concerns posed by the adults," or the "circumstances of the adults."
"Dedicated teams at the Departments of Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, and Justice have worked tirelessly to ensure the safety of Ms. L class members," HHS Secretary Alex Azar, DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, and Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a joint statement.
"As of this morning, the initial reunifications were completed. Throughout the reunification process our goal has been the well-being of the children and returning them to a safe environment,” they continued. Our agencies’ careful vetting procedures helped prevent the reunification of children with an alleged murderer, an adult convicted of child cruelty, and adults determined not to be the parent of the child. Of course, there remains a tremendous amount of hard work and similar obstacles facing our teams in reuniting the remaining families. The Trump administration does not approach this mission lightly, and we intend to continue our good faith efforts to reunify families."
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