HHS is facing a July 26 court-ordered deadline to reunite all of the children. | John Shinkle/POLITICO Trump administration expedites reunifications for 2,551 migrant children

The Trump administration said Friday night it would speed up the process to reunify thousands of migrant children that were separated from their parents at the border — nearly three weeks after a federal judge ordered officials to put families back together as soon as possible.

In a court filing, the administration for the first time specified that HHS has custody of 2,551 migrant children age 5 to 17 who were separated from their parents. The health department earlier had estimated only that "under 3,000 children" were separated from their parents as they reviewed the records of thousands of children in custody.


In a concession to the court, the administration said it would truncate the process it used to reunify younger migrant children, which involved fingerprinting and DNA testing to confirm parentage and check for criminal history.

HHS is facing a July 26 court-ordered deadline to reunite all of the children.

Under an amended plan that the Trump administration said it began deploying on Friday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will set up between six and eight locations where families can be reunified. HHS field teams will then interview prospective parents for 15 minutes to confirm parentage and a desire to reunite with the child; HHS also will review available records to determine criminal history or other factors that may pose a risk to the child.

When parentage can be confirmed, and officials determine that the child is not at risk, HHS will then bring the child to the adult's location within 48 hours and turn custody over to ICE.

The move will likely lead to faster reunifications, said Chris Meekins, deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response. But he argued that HHS' previous process — such as DNA testing, which added days — was necessary to protect children from being placed with adults who were not their parents or posed other risks.

Officials were under court order to first reunify 102 children under age 5 who were separated from their parents by July 10. Nearly half of them have yet to be reunited because of logistical reasons, including in 12 cases in which their parents were deported or because HHS concluded that the parent posed a risk to the child.

POLITICO first reported on Friday morning that HHS said it would begin expediting reunifications.