One-hundred and forty-seven undocumented migrant children separated from their parents because of President Donald Trump's zero-tolerance border security policy remained in government custody as of Nov. 6, a government report said. Thirty of the children are ineligible for reuniting because their parents were deemed unfit for posing a threat to the child or having a criminal record, said the report to Congress by the Health and Human Services Department.
An additional 117 have not been reunited because their parents are no longer in the U.S., said the report, which was released by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations subcommittee with responsibility for HHS funding. "It has been at least seven months since the Trump administration began traumatizing thousands of families and they still have not fully resolved this tragedy," DeLauro said.
The administration separated more than 2,600 children from their parents from April to June before Trump ended the policy and a judge ordered the families to be reunited. The cost of caring for the children and reuniting them with their families has reached $80 million, the report said.
The 11-page report was required by Congress as part of the 2019 spending bill for the Health and Human Services and Defense departments. House Democrats are expected to conduct oversight hearings into the family separations when they take control of the chamber in January.
