Trump administration ups its estimate of children separated from their parents to 3,000
WASHINGTON - The Trump administration said Thursday that it had separated hundreds more children from their parents after illegal border crossings than had previously been revealed and that none of the families had yet been reunited.
About 100 of the children are younger than 5, Alex Azar, the secretary of Health and Human Services, whose agency has custody of the children, told reporters on a conference call. The total number of children taken from their parents may be as high as nearly 3,000, he said. Previously, Azar and department officials had set the number at just more than 2,000.
Azar said the new numbers reflected reports from different immigration agencies and a review by hand by himself and others of
