(CNN) As focus intensifies on reuniting immigrant families separated by the government, parents are being offered the option to sign voluntary departure orders to speed up their cases -- and are told they'll be reunited with their kids before they are deported if they do.

The option is not unique to parents and is not the only option parents are given, but the offer is raising eyebrows among those who represent undocumented immigrants, who question as to whether it's understood properly by the parents being offered it.

An administration official confirmed the arrangement to CNN, saying that as is customary, immigrants in detention are being offered the chance to sign the orders to be removed from the country more quickly than if they waited for a judge. In that context, they are told their children will be reunited with them -- if they choose for them to be -- before they are deported.

The policy raises questions about how immigrants are being helped to approach their own legal situations and reunification. Efrén Olivares, an attorney with the Texas Civil Rights Project, said in a call with reporters Sunday that the matter seemed to conflate "two separate points," deportation and reunification.

"We have no reason to believe that (voluntary deportation) is the fastest way for parents to be reunited with their children," Olivares said. "Putting them in that position is not a voluntary (deportation); it's being obtained under duress."

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