The government had been separating migrant parents from their children for months leading up to President Donald Trump's announced zero-tolerance policy, NBC News is reporting.
A U.S. official called one segment of the earlier separations a "pilot program" for prosecutions in Texas, but it apparently lacked a clear system for parents to track or reunite with their children, according to the network news.
At least 2,342 kids were separated from parents after being caught crossing into the U.S. illegally since May 5 when the zero-tolerance policy went into effect.
Another 1,768 children were separated from the mothers and fathers between October 2016 and February 2018, NBC News reported, attributing the number to the Department of Homeland Security.
The figures break down like this: More than 1,000 kids were separated from their parents between October 2016 and Sept. 2017. Another 703 were separated between October 2017 and February 2018.
No numbers were provided by DHS for March and April 2018.
In all, the total number of separated children stands at more than 4,100, NBC News said.
One DHS official noted dividing parents and kids began before Trump took office. But the official said the Trump administration ran a "pilot program" for zero-tolerance in El Paso, Texas from July 2017 to October 2017.
NBC News reported that court records and interviews with migrants reveal that during that time frame, authorities filed criminal charges against any adults caught crossing the border unlawfully in the sector that runs from New Mexico to west Texas. And those arriving with children were not exempt.
The children were reclassified as "unaccompanied" and sent to shelters across the U.S. run by the Department of Health and Human Services, NBC News reported.
"This was happening in El Paso before it was news," said Linda Rivas, executive director of Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center. "People didn't believe it."
Meanwhile, a U.S. District Court judge has ordered that thousands of migrant children who were forcibly separated from their parents be reunited within 30 days. The deadline was set on Tuesday night by a federal judge in San Diego.
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