Report: Records Linking Detained Immigrant Kids, Parents ‘Destroyed’

The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security have been in a “scramble” to get the information to reunite almost 3,000 children with their parents in the family separations fallout, The New York Times reports. Two sources told the newspaper that records linking parents to their children “have disappeared” or have been “destroyed,” making positive identifications between children and family an uphill battle. HHS also sent out an email looking for volunteers to help scan through about 12,000 children’s records to determine which children were separated from their parents by the U.S. government and who arrived unaccompanied. “Everyone here is now participating in this process, including the Secretary who personally stayed until past midnight to assist,” the email read. On Thursday, HHS Secretary Alex Azar told reporters that about 100 children on government custody were under the age of 5. It was previously reported that the agencies would now rely on DNA testing to match parents with children in the reunification process.