First Wave of Migrant Children Set for Reunions With Parents

HOUSTON — Federal officials struggled Tuesday to pull off a series of court-ordered reunifications between dozens of detained migrant children and their families at various sites around the country, as they rapidly shifted logistical gears and seemed to be as much improvising as carrying out a plan.

The scheduled reunions were designed to comply with a federal court deadline. Officials were moving to reunite 54 children under age 5 with their families. The children had been separated from their families at the southwest border and had been detained in shelters far from their parents, many of whom were also detained as part of President Donald Trump’s now-defunct family separation policy.

The exact number of children who would be returned Tuesday was still in flux, according to an official close to the operation who was not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity. The federal agency that oversees the care of migrant children, the Department of Health and Human Services, was still conducting background checks on parents until the very last moment Tuesday morning. The final number to be reunited had changed as recently as 8 a.m. Tuesday.

Even after the parents were granted approval to take custody of their children, the operation faced other challenges. It required unprecedented coordination between multiple federal agencies and government contractors — groups that have struggled to work together smoothly since the family separations began weeks ago, to the frustration of immigrant advocates and the federal judge overseeing the court case challenging the Trump administration’s handling of migrant families.

On Monday, the plan had been for the shelters where the children are housed to transport the children to undisclosed locations in various states and to hand the children over to the Department of Homeland Security. But Tuesday morning, a person familiar with the reunifications said the plan had changed: Officials with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency were now preparing to pick up the children at the various sites and shelters.

Officials appeared to be conducting the reunifications at ICE facilities across the country, but the exact locations remained unclear, and it was not known whether the public or the news media would be able to view any aspect of the reunions.

Separately, a plane carrying 11 reunited families was set to land in Guatemala on Tuesday, according to Jairo Estrada, Guatemala’s vice minister of foreign relations.

Judge Dana M. Sabraw of the U.S. District Court in San Diego had set a deadline of Tuesday for the youngest children to be returned, but government lawyers said Monday that of 102 such children now in government custody, the authorities have been able to identify, locate and vet the parents of only 54. The court order requires all 3,000 children to be returned to their families before the end of the month.

On Tuesday, Trump weighed in on the pending reunions, claimed Democrats want “open borders” and defended ICE, which has been the focus of protests, with widespread calls for abolishing the agency. Trump made the remarks before boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House. He was asked by reporters for his reaction to officials missing the court-ordered deadline for reunions.

“Well, I have a solution," Trump replied. “Tell people not to come to our country illegally. That’s the solution. Don’t come to our country illegally. Come like other people do. Come legally.”

A reporter asked him if he was suggesting that the children be punished.

“I’m saying this, very simply: We have laws," Trump said. “We have borders. Don’t come to our country illegally. It’s not a good thing. And as far as ICE is concerned, the people that are fighting ICE, it’s a disgrace. These people go into harm’s way. There is nobody under greater danger than the people from ICE.”

The children involved in Tuesday’s reunions are some of the youngest immigrants caught up in the Trump administration’s family separation policy. They had been apprehended with their relatives at the border, separated from their families and detained in so-called tender-age shelters for children under the age of 12. They have been separated from their loved ones, in many cases, for weeks.

The Texas-based nonprofit that has raised more than $20 million to help families separated at the border said Tuesday that it plans to offer the money as bond payments to release thousands of mothers who remain in custody.

Leaders of the group, Raices, said they planned to offer to pay as much of the money as was necessary to reunite an estimated 2,500 children and mothers. They have already paid nearly $100,000 in bonds for roughly 18 people who are in custody with the Department of Homeland Security.

Officials with Raices acknowledge that they may face resistance from the Department of Homeland Security in accepting bond payments. But they hope to use the issue to keep attention on the children who remain scattered across the country, and to press Congress to take action.

“We will not simply fork over a check and hope for the best,” said Jonathan Ryan, the executive director of Raices. “We expect that the government will act in good faith, as the American people are demanding, and sit down with us, put all of our cards on the table.”