Ivanka Trump breaks long silence on family separations and urges government to reunite children with parents

"Now that an EO has been signed ending family separation at the border, it is time to focus on swiftly and safely reuniting the families that have been separated," Ivanka tweeted Thursday.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristjen Nielsen said Thursday that DHS, along with the Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services, "have a plan" to reunite the more than 2,000 migrant children in government custody with their parents "as quickly as we can."

Many migrant parents arrested on the border reportedly do not know where their children have been taken and have not been in communication with them, despite contrary assurances from government officials. Former acting director of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement John Sandweg has warned that hundreds of children in US custody will never find their way back to their parents, some of whom have already been deported.

"You could be creating thousands of immigrant orphans in the US that one day could become eligible for citizenship when they are adopted," Sandweg told NBC News this week.

On Wednesday afternoon, Ivanka praised her father for ending the administration's policy of separating migrant children from their parents after they cross the US-Mexico border, calling the president's Wednesday executive order a "critical action." She also called on Congress to "find a lasting solution that is consistent with our shared values."

Her congratulatory comment received swift criticism from those who called it cowardly for a top White House adviser to avoid making a substantive public comment on such an impactful and controversial policy.

The president told Republican lawmakers earlier this week that Ivanka had privately encouraged him to address the issue, as images and audio of traumatized children on the border have saturated the news over the past several days.

"Ivanka feels very strongly," Trump said Wednesday. "I think anybody with a heart would feel very strongly about it. We don't like to see families separated."