More than 500 children ‘reunited’ after US border separations

WASHINGTON: More than 500 children separated from family members under the US “zero tolerance” immigration policy have been reunited, administration officials say, after confusion followed President Donald Trump´s sudden backtracking on the practice.

Releasing its first official data since Trump on Wednesday ended the family separations — but without an immediate plan for putting parents and children back together — the Department of Homeland Security said the reunification process “is well coordinated.” It said 522 children separated as part of “zero tolerance” have been reunited with their families, but another 2,053 separated minors remained in the care of the US Department of Health and Human Services as of Wednesday. “The United States government knows the location of all children in its custody and is working to reunite them with their families,” Homeland Security said in a statement late Saturday.— ´A great sadness´ — Trying to stanch the flow of tens of thousands of migrants from Central America and Mexico arriving at the southern border every month, Trump in early May had ordered that all adults crossing illegally would be arrested, and their children held separately as a result. After images of children in chain-link enclosures sparked domestic and global outrage, Trump ended the separation practice but has continued his hardline talk on immigration.