特朗普政府的“零容忍”政策导致四个家庭分离移居国土安全部部长亚历杭德罗·马约尔卡斯周一宣布，2017年的政策将于本周重新统一。
一位母亲带着孩子逃离洪都拉斯，另一位在他们分居之前来自墨西哥。另外两个家庭来自危地马拉。他们现在将被允许与他们在美国的孩子团聚
出于隐私考虑，政府只公布了这些家庭的有限细节。这标志着拜登政府的家庭团聚工作组宣布了其工作的具体成果。
“这只是开始，”梅尔卡斯说。在接下来的几周和几个月里，我们将继续不懈努力，让更多的孩子与他们的父母团聚。我们还有很多工作要做。但我为进展我们已经取得了进展，我们在本周帮助实现了统一。"
家庭团聚工作队执行主任米歇尔·布兰尼(Michelle Brané)表示，这些家庭将获得“人道主义假释”地位，允许他们在美国逗留有限的时间。政府正在探索其他长期救济方案，但迈尔卡斯表示，每个案例都是独特的。
“没有放之四海而皆准的方法，”梅尔卡斯说。“这是一个我们正在非常仔细地研究的问题，并且正在与家庭顾问合作。”我们都同意需要稳定和资源。这些家庭需要这个来治愈。目前，我们正在个性化的基础上进行终止。"
移民倡导者推动政府加快统一。倡导组织Al Otro Lado的诉讼和政策主任埃里卡·皮涅罗(Erika Pinheiro)表示，拜登上任的第一天，至少有30名移民准备好了团聚。
皮涅罗在给美国广播公司新闻的一封电子邮件中说:“不清楚为什么工作队强迫我们的客户等几个月才能与他们的孩子团聚——他们本可以很容易地让这些父母回来团聚，而他们却为其他人想出了这个过程。”
局长敦促拜登政府采取更积极的行动，让家庭团聚。
皮涅罗说:“尽管梅约尔卡斯部长让公众相信，但DHS本周除了同意让这些父母入境外，没有采取任何措施来促进他们的回归和团聚。”。
马约尔卡斯和布伦说，政府迄今已确认了1000多个仍然分居的家庭。他们大多数人的命运都被和解谈判所缠绕，这是特朗普政府时期开始的美国公民自由联盟诉讼的一部分。
布兰尼说:“我们确实同意的一件事是，随着谈判的进展，我们将继续在力所能及的范围内统一这些国家。”。“所以，这是第一个小组，我们有更多的正在进行中，我们将进行审查。因此，我们希望在未来几周和几个月内，申请将继续进行，直到一个更大的正式程序。”
官员们还借此机会吹捧政府在应对气候变化方面取得的进展流动儿童激增最近几个月在边境。
马约尔卡斯说，自从移民潮以来，在CBP拘留的移民儿童减少了84%。在最近的高峰期，CBP拘留了大约5700名儿童。他说，CBP拘留所的平均等待时间现在约为20小时。
他不排除利用特别工作组来追究前任政府的责任，但没有透露任何细节。
“我们这里继承的国土安全部的记录并不完全准确，当然也不完整。所以跑腿的工作量是很大的。我们的首要任务是让这些家庭团聚，”他说。
前司法部长杰夫·赛辛斯根据1月份发布的一份联邦监察报告，特朗普政府将移民家庭分开的努力是针对未经授权的跨境者的“零容忍”政策的一部分，他的办公室是这一努力的“驱动力”。
Biden administration announces separated migrant families to be reunited this week
Four families separated under the Trump administration's "zero tolerance"immigrationpolicy in 2017 will be reunited this week, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced on Monday.
One mother fled from Honduras with her children, another came from Mexico prior to their separations. The two other families were from Guatemala. They will now be allowed to reunite with their children in the U.S.
The government only released limited details about the families due to privacy concerns. It marks the first time theBiden administration's Family Reunification Task Forcehas announced a concrete product of its work since it was established at the beginning of his term in January.
"This is just the beginning," Mayorkas said. We continue to work tirelessly to reunite many more children with their parents in the weeks and months ahead. We have a lot of work still to do. But I am proud of theprogresswe have made, and the reunifications that we have helped to achieve this week."
The families will be granted a "humanitarian parole" status, allowing them to remain in the U.S. for a limited amount of time, according to Michelle Brané, executive director of the Family Reunification Task Force. The government is exploring other options for longer-term relief, but Mayorkas said each case is unique.
"There is not a one size fits all," Mayorkas said. "This is an issue that we are looking into very carefully and working with counsel for the family. "We are all in agreement that stability and resources are needed. These families need that to heal. And we are making our terminations on an individualized basis at this point."
Immigrant advocates have pushed the administration to speed up reunifications. Erika Pinheiro, litigation and policy director at advocacy organization Al Otro Lado, said at least 30 migrants were ready for reunification on Biden's first day in office.
"It is unclear why the Task Force has forced our clients to wait for months to be reunified with their children -- they could have just as easily allowed these parents to return and reunify while they figured out the process for everyone else," Pinheiro said in an email to ABC News.
The director urged the Biden administration to take more proactive action to reunite families going forward.
"Despite what Secretary Mayorkas would have the public believe, DHS has done nothing to facilitate the return and reunification of these parents this week, other than to agree to allow them in," Pinheiro said.
The administration has so far identified more than 1,000 families that remain separated, Mayorkas and Brene said. The fate of the majority of them are wrapped up in settlement negotiations as part of litigation from the ACLU started under the Trump administration.
"The one thing we did agree on is that we will continue to reunify those where we can as we move forward in those negotiations," Brané said. "So, this is the first group, and we have more that are in the process that we will be reviewing. So, we hope that in the coming weeks and months, the applications will continue until a larger formal process."
Officials also took the opportunity to tout the administration's progress in addressing thesurge of migrant childrenat the border in recent months.
Mayorkas said that since the surge, which at its recent max saw about 5,700 kids in CBP custody, they have seen a 84% decrease in migrant children being held in CBP custody. He said the average wait time in CBP custody is now about 20 hours.
He did not rule out using the task force to hold the prior administration accountable, but did not go into any details.
"The records that the Department of Homeland Security, that we here have inherited are not entirely accurate they are certainly not complete. And so the amount of legwork, is -- is significant. And that is our first priority is reuniting these families," he said.
Former Attorney GeneralJeff Sessionsand his office were the "driving force" behind the Trump administration's efforts separating migrant families as part of the "zero tolerance" policy aimed at unauthorized border crossers, according to a federal watchdog report released in January.
