The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services (HHS) have a process established to ensure that family members know the location of their children and have regular communication after separation to ensure that those adults who are subject to removal are reunited with their children for the purposes of removal. The United States government knows the location of all children in its custody and is working to reunite them with their families.

As part of the apprehension, detention and prosecution process, illegal aliens, adults and children, are initially detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) before the children are sent to HHS’ Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and parents to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody. Each entity plays a role in reunification. This process is well coordinated.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection

CBP has reunited 522 Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) in their custody who were separated from adults as part of the Zero Tolerance initiative. The reunions of an additional 16 UAC who were scheduled to be reunited on June 22, 2018 were delayed due to weather affecting travel and we expect they will all be reunited with their parents within the next 24 hours. There will be a small number of children who were separated for reasons other than zero tolerance that will remain separated: generally only if the familial relationship cannot be confirmed, we believe the adult is a threat to the safety of the child, or the adult is a criminal alien.

Because of the speed in which adults completed their criminal proceedings, some children were still present at a United States Border Patrol (USBP) station at the time their parent(s) returned from court proceedings. In these cases, the USBP reunited the family and transferred them, together, to ICE custody as a family unit.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has dedicated the Port Isabel Service Processing Center (PIDC) in the San Antonio Field Office area as the primary facility to house alien parents or legal guardians going through the removal process. No children will be housed at the facility.

PIDC is intended to serve the unique needs of detained parents and legal guardians of minors in HHS/ORR custody by helping to facilitate communication with their children and to help parents make informed decisions about their child.

ICE will work with the adults to provide regular communication with their children through video teleconferencing, phone, and tablets at PIDC and other detention locations where these parents are detained.

Where a child is in the care and custody of HHS/ORR, ICE works with ORR to reunite the parent and child at the time of removal and with the consulate to assist the parent to obtain a travel document for the child.

Once the parent’s immigration case has been adjudicated by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and/or the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), ICE will seek to reunite verified family units and link their removal proceedings so that family units can be returned to their home countries together.

ICE has completed the following steps toward reunification:

Implemented an identification mechanism to ensure on-going tracking of linked family members throughout the detention and removal process;

Designated detention locations for separated parents and will enhance current processes to ensure communication with children in HHS custody;

Worked closely with foreign consulates to ensure that travel documents are issued for both the parent and child at time of removal; and

Coordinated with HHS for the reuniting of the child prior to the parents’ departure from the United States.

U.S. Health and Human Services Office of Refugee Resettlement