Biden Admin To Start Reuniting Migrant Families Separated Under Trump.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas made the announcement on May 2.
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Biden's reunification task force estimates that over 1,000 migrant families are still separated.
This week, the administration will reunite four of those families.
According to Michelle Brané, executive director of Biden's reunification task force, .
The previously-deported parents will be given humanitarian parole to come back to their children in the U.S. Additionally, the task force is "looking into longer-term status" for those parents to stay in America.
But according to immigrant advocacy organization Al Otro Lado (AOL), the Biden administration hasn't done much to facilitate the reunifications outside of "agree[ing] to allow them in.".
The only reason these mothers will be standing at the port of entry is because Al Otro Lado negotiated their travel visas with the Mexican government, paid for their airline tickets and arranged for reunification, Carol Anne Donohoe, managing attorney of Al Otro Lado's Family Reunification Project, via NBC News.
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the Immigrants' Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, .
Said "this is only the beginning of a very long process involving more than 5,500 children.".
This is the first group, and we have more that are in the process that we will be reviewing, so we hope that in the coming weeks and months reunifications will continue until a larger formal process is announced, Lee Gelernt, The deputy director of the Immigrants' Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union