Updated on June 20, 2018, at 6:30 P.M.:

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responded to Teen Vogue's request for comment on this story about the difficulties of reuniting families after parents and children have been taken into U.S. custody by separate agencies. HHS did not address its placement policies for immigrant youth and sponsors, saying: "HHS operates a network of just over 100 shelters in 17 states and has a proven track record of accountability and transparency for a program operations [sic], as well as being a good neighbor in the communities where shelters are located."

Representatives from Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) also responded to a Teen Vogue request for comment, beginning with these denials: "I would tell you CBP did NOT separate children under false pretenses such as a bath. Nor did we remove an infant from her mother while breast-feeding." Teen Vogue included that a woman said her daughter had been taken while breast-feeding in its report on ways to help families affected by the separation policy; other outlets have reported that CBP uses false pretenses such as baths to remove children.

The representative also wrote, "CBP does not separate those under age 5 from their parent except in cases where familial relationships are in question, there is another crime involved or for the medical needs of the child." When asked if "another crime" could be prosecution stemming from a border crossing — the central tenant of the zero-tolerance policy causing family separations — a second representative said, "Another crimes involved [sic] includes other crimes committed by the adult."

Previously...

As lawmakers and the public continue to criticize and protest the Trump administration policy of separating families at the U.S.-Mexico border, the parents and nearly 2,000 children who have already been targeted are dealing with a murky legal situation around reunifying.

Based on reporting from BuzzFeed News and what one immigration lawyer in Texas told The New Yorker, there appears to be no set protocol or policy in place for reuniting families after they have been forcibly separated. An ICE spokesperson claimed in an email to Teen Vogue that there are protocols in place, but multiple reports indicate the process is confusing, and ICE offered no information about its efficacy.

The separations take place because of the Trump administration policy that adults must be prosecuted for crossing the border improperly. According to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) website, adults who are apprehended are taken into CBP custody while children are referred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR), a part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Parents are held by the Border Patrol before being referred to the Department of Justice for federal criminal proceedings, then they are transferred to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody for "appropriate immigration proceedings", according to the CBP site.

Parents and children are detained separately, and The Washington Post reported that several detained mothers who had been recently moved to a detention center in Seattle told Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) they often aren't given a chance to say goodbye and don't know where their children are while they're in custody. In a June 19 article from The New Yorker, a Honduran woman named Ana Rivera said Border Patrol agents pried her screaming son away from her without saying where they were taking him. (Rivera said that she was also told she was pregnant after a physical examination while in custody.)