A task force established under the Biden administration two years ago has reunited over 600 children with their families who had tried to enter the United States illegally when a short-lived but strict border policy was in effect under the Trump administration.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced Thursday that 998 children “remain to be reunited.”
After President Joe Biden took office, his administration in February 2021 established the Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families to reunite the families that remained separated.
In a statement on Thursday, the DHS said the task force has “relentlessly pursued its mission of finding separated families and providing them the opportunity for reunification.”
“As of February 1, 2023, 2,926 separated children have been reunified, either before the establishment of the Task Force or through the leadership of the Task Force.”
DHS figures indicate that 689 have been reunited with their families since the task force was created.
“Of the 998 children who remain to be reunited, as of February 1, 2023, 148 children are in the process of reunification and 183 families have been informed of the opportunity to reunify by a contracted NGO.”
Reunification Services
The task force has also informed the families about how to access reunification services, which means they can “receive support in applying for humanitarian parole, arranging travel to the United States, and once here, accessing behavioral health services from a trusted provider,” the DHS stated.Families can register for such services through the websites Together.gov or Juntos.gov, upon which they are provided with support services via the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a contract partner of the federal government.
The task force has, to date, reached 1,999 families through the registration process on Together.gov/Juntos.gov, and referred the eligible families to the IOM to complete the humanitarian parole request process.
It has also provided 735 families with behavioral health case management services and provided 385 families with behavioral health assessments and treatment, according to the DHS.
The work to reunite families “will continue until all separated families that can be found have been provided the opportunity to reunify,” the DHS said.
“The Task Force is working closely with colleagues across DHS and other federal agencies to develop policies to prioritize family unity, protect against future family separations, and reunify any remaining separated families.”