A senior Trump administration official says about 500 of the more than 2,000 children separated from their families at the border have been reunited since May.
The official said Thursday those children had been separated from their parents as a result of a ‘zero tolerance’ policy that calls for the criminal prosecution of anyone caught crossing the U.S. border illegally.
The official was not authorized to give out the number and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
The official says many of the children were reunited within days after being separated from their families.
It is currently unclear how many of the reunited children remained in custody with their families or how many were no longer in the country.
A demonstrator hold up a sign during a rally opposed to President Trump’s family separation policy, in front of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 21, 2018
Silvia Fierro, of El Paso, Texas, demonstrates along fellow activists as a group of US mayors hold a press conference outside the holding facility for immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas, near the Mexican border, Thursday, June 21, 2018
People hold up signs and photographs during a demonstration opposed to the White House policy that separated more than 2,300 children from their parents over the past several weeks in front of the White House in Washington, Thursday, June 21, 2018
This June 21, 2018 photo shows a vandalized billboard in Emeryville, California, which is part of the protests over the Trump Administration’s immigration policy
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Health and Human Services are working to set up a centralized reunification process at the Port Isabel Detention Center near Los Fresnos, Texas.
Hundreds of demonstrators protested outside the offices of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s office in San Francisco this week, banging drums and chanting ‘Stop taking children!’ and ‘The people are rising, no more compromising!’
Activist artists altered a billboard in Emeryville, California as part of ongoing protests.
The billboard that previously read, ‘We make junk disappear’ now reads: ‘We make kids disappear. -ICE.’
The anti-ICE message was reportedly painted overnight Thursday on a billboard located on Interstate Highway 80, according to CBS San Francisco.
Amid nationwide outcry, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced plans to dismiss cases in which parents were charged with illegally entering or re-entering the country and were subsequently separated from their children.
The case dismissals were announced in an email from the federal public defender’s office, that covers cases from El Paso to San Antonio.
The notification came Thursday afternoon from the federal public defender’s office for the western district of Texas.
El Paso immigration attorney Carlos Spector says the notice puts ‘a major dent’ in the zero-tolerance policy as it implies that federal officials will not be prosecuting these cases.
It’s unclear how many cases have been and will be dismissed as a result.
With the criminal charges dismissed, Spector said this removes the basis for separating children from their parents.
Washington and more than a half-dozen other states meanwhile are planning to sue the Trump administration over the policy that separated immigrant families illegally entering the United States.
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson made the announcement Thursday outside a federal prison in the city of SeaTac, south of Seattle, where about 200 immigration detainees have been transferred – including women separated from their children.
Ferguson says the separations violate the due process rights of children and their parents and that Trump’s executive order Wednesday halting the practice hasn’t resolved the legal concerns.
Immigrant children now housed in a tent encampment under the new “zero tolerance” policy by the Trump administration are shown walking in single file at the facility near the Mexican border in Tornillo, Texas, U.S. June 19, 2018
Immigrants in handcuffs and ankle chains arrive at the Federal Courthouse for hearings, Thursday, June 21, 2018, in McAllen, Texas. President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday to end family separations at the border
A two-year-old Honduran asylum seeker cries as her mother is searched and detained near the U.S.-Mexico border on June 12, 2018 in McAllen, Texas
Ever Castillo, an immigrant from Honduras, walks back with his family from the United States to Reynosa, Mexico, Thursday, June 21, 2018. The family, who was seeking asylum, was told by officials they would be separated and voluntarily returned across the border
Massachusetts, California, Maryland, Oregon, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Minnesota plan to join the lawsuit. New York has separately announced plans to sue.
The Justice Department formally asked a federal judge to change the rules on detaining families caught at the border.
Lawyers on Thursday filed a memorandum to a class-settlement that governs how children are handled when they are caught crossing the U.S. border illegally.
The Flores settlement states that families cannot be detained longer than 20 days.
The move is aimed at stopping the separation of children from their families amid a new policy where anyone caught crossing the border is charged criminally.
Detainees are seen inside a facility, where tent shelters are being used to house separated family members at the Port of Entry, Thursday, June 21, 2018, in Fabens, Texas
An agent with the Department of Homeland Security closes the exterior gate of the holding facility for immigrant children in Tornillo, Texas, near the Mexican border, Thursday, June 21, 2018
President Donald Trump had signed the order Wednesday stopping the practice that has resulted in the separation of more than 2,300 children from their families. Homeland Security officials will detain families together.
A day after Trump signed the executive order, the government wrestled with the ramifications of the order and had no clear plan to reunite the more than 2,300 children with their mothers and fathers.
In a day of confusion and conflicting reports, the Trump administration began drawing up plans to house as many as 20,000 migrants on U.S. military bases.
But officials gave differing accounts as to whether those beds would be for children or for entire families.
The Trump administration thus far has not given clear direction on how they plan to bring together the thousands of children already separated from their families.
A spokesperson for the Health and Human Services Department told NBC News the children currently in custody without a parent or guardian will follow the ‘sponsorship process.’
This means the children will be ‘paired with relatives or foster parents, rather than the biological parents.’
The department told NBC the sponsorship process will ensue until the Department of Homeland Security gives further direction.
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