While 25 of those parents may have a chance of returning for reunification, several families contacted by the federal court-appointed committee to identify separated families chose to leave their children in the US with a family member or sponsor.
Lawyers have been unable to find the parents of 545 children separated at the Mexico boarder after the majority of families were deported back to Central America, according to the ACLU.
A court filing from the American Civil Liberties Union showed they have only made contact with parents of 550 children out of the 1,000 families separated at the border in 2017, according to NBC News.
Lee Gelernt, deputy director of the ACLU Immigrants’ Rights Project, told NBC News that hundreds of families have still not been found.
«People ask when we will find all of these families and, sadly, I can’t give an answer. I just don’t know,» Mr Gelernt said. «The tragic reality is that hundreds of parents were deported to Central America without their children, who remain here with foster families or distant relatives.”
Justice in Motion, the group on the ground in Mexico and Central America physically searching for the separated families, said in a statement they were continuing to look for more deported parents.
“It’s an arduous and time-consuming process on a good day. During the pandemic, our team of human rights defenders is taking special measures to protect their own security and safety, as well as that of the parents and their communities,” the statement shared with NBC said.
The Trump administration began trialling a «zero tolerance» policy at the US’s southern border in a pilot programme in 2017.
US border authorities are expelling migrant children from other countries into Mexico
US border authorities have violated a diplomatic agreement with Mexico, by expelling migrant children from other nations into the neighbouring country, according to the New York Times.
The decision is in direct conflict with a diplomatic agreement the US has with Mexico, in which the Mexican government agreed to help bring Mexican children and others with adult supervision back into the country if they attempted to cross the border into the US.
Under the diplomatic agreement, children from countries other than Mexico are supposed to be put on flights to their home countries, which are operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
The Trump administration has said that it needs to implement an aggressive border policy in order to help prevent the spread of Covid-19 in the US, according to the Times.
The expulsions put children from countries such as Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, at risk, by sending them into a country where they have no connections or family.
The Times reported that most of the children have been put into the care of child welfare authorities in Mexico, which oversee shelters organised by private groups and religious organisations.
At least 200 children in the past eight months have been expelled to Mexico from the US, despite not being citizens of the country.
