Texas group takes in about 30 parents separated from kids

A Texas charitable organisation says 32 immigrant parents separated from their children after crossing the US-Mexico border were freed into its care, but they don't know where their kids are or when they might see them again despite government assurances that family reunification would be well organised.

The release yesterday is believed to be the first, large one of its kind since President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday that preserved a "zero-tolerance" policy for entering the country illegally but ended the practice of separating immigrant parents and children.

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement offered no immediate comment.

Ruben Garcia, director of Annunciation House in El Paso, said the group of both mothers and fathers includes some from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras who arrived to his group after federal authorities withdrew criminal charges for illegal entry.

He didn't release names or personal details to protect the parents' privacy, and Homeland Security officials said they needed more specifics in order to check out their cases.

A Saturday night fact sheet by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies said authorities know the location of all children in custody after separating them from their families at the border and are working to reunite them. It called the reunification process "well coordinated."
The chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee hedged Sunday when pressed on whether he was confident the Trump administration knows where all the children are and will be able to reunite them with their parents. "That is what they're claiming," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., said on CNN's "State of the Union."
"If we bring in 30 cellphones, they're going to call that number, they're not going to reach 30 children," said Garcia, whose organization has been working with federal authorities to assist immigrants for 40 years. "Actually (they're) not going to be able to give them any information on what to expect."