translated from Spanish: US announces meeting of migrant children with their parents after years

With the reunion of four mothers removed from their children, the United States is beginning this week the reunification of separate migrant families on the Mexican border during Donald Trump’s tenure, Joe Biden’s administration announced this Monday.
The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Alejandro Mayorkas, indicated that four mothers who fled “extremely dangerous situations in their home countries” will be reunited with their children after being separated on the US-Mexico border.
Mayorkas celebrated this breakthrough after Joe Biden’s government established in February a team specially dedicated to tracking and reuniting families, led by the secretary himself.

Read also: Biden delays plan to increase US refugee admissions
“The working group has made critical progress in a few months and will continue to work tirelessly to give families the opportunity to meet and heal,” said Mayorkas, who is the first Latino and the first immigrant to head this department to deal – among other tasks – with border security. 
According to U.S. media, two of the families benefited are a Mexican mother and a Honduran mother who were separated from their children in late 2017. Some of the children who will be re-found with their parents were only three years old when they were separated from them.

Zero tolerance
Trump’s policy of “zero tolerance” to irregular immigration began to be implemented in 2017 and was formally announced in 2018.
By separating families – mostly Central Americans fleeing violence – the Republican government sought to deter migrants from embarking on the journey north.
The implementation, which was estimated to have affected nearly 5,000 children, was suspended in the face of a wave of national and global outrage.
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Mayorkas expressed her joy at the beginning of the reunification process and the fact that these “four mothers can embrace their children after so many years.”
The secretary of the Department of Homeland Security indicated that this is only the “principle” of the program. 
The Democratic representative denounced his predecessor’s policy as a “moral and national disgrace.” 
It is unclear how many children are still far from their parents, but it is estimated that they can reach up to a thousand.
A complicated search for the pandemic
The Trump administration kept incomplete files and did very little to cooperate with organizations that tried to reunite families with their children. 
The few available data arose mostly from lawsuits that attempted to track down parents who had been deported away from their children who remained in the United States. 
This task was complicated as many of the migrants are from rural areas and communities located in hard-to-reach mountainous areas, a logistical task also complicated by the pandemic and by the two hurricanes that swept through Central America during the Boreal autumn.
To understand: Migrant children: the invisible
Years after separation, parents face potential cultural and language barriers with children who may have vague memories of them.
The government did not clarify whether families will be allowed legal residency in the United States, at a time when the government is facing criticism from Republicans that their approach to immigration has had a so-called effect and created a “crisis” at the border.
In March, there was a 71% increase in the detention of undocumented persons at the border, compared to the previous month.
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Original source in Spanish