Released from criminal custody, immigrant parents await news of children

Federal officials dropped criminal charges against 32 illegal immigrants separated from their children at the U.S. southern border and released them on Sunday to the care of a Roman Catholic organization in El Paso, Texas. The group is believed to be the first of its kind released since President Donald Trump issued an order last Wednesday to halt the policy of separating illegal immigrants from their children. The parents, some of whom came to the United States from Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, now wait to be reunited with their children, a process the Trump administration has said would be “well coordinated.” The parents have been given a toll-free number to call to get information about their children, but Ruben Garcia, the director of the Catholic charity, Annunciation House, expressed doubt all would quickly be able to get the information they sought: “If we bring in 30 cellphones, they're going to call that number, they’re not going to reach 30 children,” he said. It’s unclear how long it will take for the children and parents to be reunited.

The disappearance over the weekend of a teenage immigrant from a Brownsville, Texas, children’s shelter raised questions over the ability of federal officials to keep track of immigrant youth separated from parents. The shelter was being used to house some of the more than 2,000 children separated from parents at the border, but the nonprofit group that manages the shelter said it did not possess the legal authority to stop a teenager from leaving the shelter if he did not wish to stay.