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Report: Almost 1,800 Families Split Up at U.S.-Mexico Border in 17-Month Period

A government official said the number has risen sharply in recent weeks.

Nearly 1,800 families were separated at the U.S.-Mexico border between October 2016 and February 2018, an administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told Reuters. The figure from that 17-month period comes a month after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a zero-tolerance policy for undocumented immigrants who illegally cross the southwest border into the U.S. Last month, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection official testified to Congress that 638 children were separated from their parents at the southern border between May 6 and May 19. The American Civil Liberties Union recently sued the government for taking a 7-year-old girl away from her Congolese mother, who was seeking asylum in California.