TRAGIC

Number of Migrant Children With Missing Parents Now Up to 666, Lawyers Say

A third of the children separated from their parents under Trump’s “zerotolerance” policy are under the age of 5.

The number of migrant children immigration lawyers have been unable to reunite with their parents is now 666, up from the initially announced 545, according to NBC News. A source familiar with the data says a third of those children were under 5 at the time of their separation under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy between April and June 2018. However, the majority of the additional 121 missing children reported Monday are from an earlier pilot program in El Paso, Texas, that was testing family separation. The 666 number now includes families “for whom the government did not provide any phone number,” according to Steven Herzo, the lawyer leading the case. Although President-elect Joe Biden has committed to establishing a government task force to reunify the migrant families, two sources familiar with the issue say he has not decided if the parents subsequently will be able to come to the U.S. to pursue their asylum cases.