The Atlantic

How Will Detained Children Find Their Parents?

President Trump is ordering an end to the separation of families at the border, but the fate of thousands of children already in government custody is uncertain.
Source: John Moore / Getty

More than 2,000 children have been separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border in the five weeks since the Trump administration announced it was implementing a “zero tolerance” immigration policy—and it’s still not clear how, or when, those children might be reunited with their parents.

On Wednesday, amid mounting pressure to end the policy, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that he said would keep families together, but it’s unclear what will become of the thousands of young people the U.S. government has detained since last month.

Federal officials have few answers.

“We’re still working through the experience of reunifying

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