Number Of Separated Migrant Children Thousands More Than Previously Reported; Reunification Unlikely

The number of migrant children separated from their families by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under its “zero tolerance policy” is likely thousands more than the 2,737 reported as of June 26, 2018, by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), according to a report issued by the HHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG). Nearly a year before DHS formally announced its “zero-tolerance policy” in the spring of 2018, the HHS Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) observed a steep increase, starting in the summer of 2017, in the number and proportion of separated alien children . . .