Since June, the parents of 31 of those children whose whereabouts had been previously unknown have been found.
As part of the effort, the Department of Homeland Security has established a process for accepting parole requests, the Department of Health and Human Services is working on facilitating services to support families and the State Department is developing a streamlined system for processing in-country travel document requests. The Justice Department is involved in related settlement negotiation efforts.
Immigrant advocacy groups have urged the administration to move faster to reunite families. But a senior DHS official previously told CNN that the administration “chose intentionally to start slow, so we can go fast later.”
“We need to make sure that families have a place to go when they get here,” the official said. “There’s a review of the cases and preparation for travel.”