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Tally of Children Separated from Parents at Border Tops 5,400

Associated Press

   SAN DIEGO - U.S. immigration authorities separated more than 1,500
   children from their parents at the Mexico border early in the Trump
   administration, the American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday,
   bringing the total number of children separated since July 2017 to more
   than 5,400.

   The ACLU said the administration told its attorneys that 1,556 children
   were separated from July 1, 2017, to June 26, 2018, when a federal
   judge in San Diego ordered that children in government custody be
   reunited with their parents.

   Children from that period can be difficult to find because the
   government had inadequate tracking systems. Volunteers working with the
   ACLU are searching for some of them and their parents by going
   door-to-door in Guatemala and Honduras.

   Of those separated during the 12-month period, 207 were younger than 5,
   said attorney Lee Gelernt of the ACLU, which sued to stop family
   separation. Five were less than a year old, 26 were a year old, 40 were
   2 years old, 76 were 3 years old, and 60 were 4 years old.

   "It is shocking that 1,556 more families, including babies and
   toddlers, join the thousands of others already torn apart by this
   inhumane and illegal policy," Gelernt said. "Families have suffered
   tremendously, and some may never recover."

   The Justice Department declined to comment.

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