The Biden administration still hasn't found parents of 120 children separated from their families under Trump

• 120 children separated from their families under Trump are still without their parents.
• The federal government hasn't been able to reunite them with parents or guardians, per a court filing.

The United States still hasn't been able to find the parents of 120 children separated from their families under former President Donald Trump's "zero tolerance" policy for immigrants crossing the border from Mexico, according to a status report filed to federal court Wednesday night.

At least 5,000 children were separated from their families under the Trump administration in 2017 and 2018, and the precise number remains in flux as families continue to apply for help from the Department of Homeland Security.

Under Trump, parents and guardians who crossed the border into the United States were jailed or deported while children remained in the custody of the US Department of Health and Human Services.

A judge overseeing a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union over the separation policy ordered the federal government to reunify families through a "Steering Committee," an effort that runs in tandem with a separate task force formed by now-President Joe Biden when he took office in 2021.

In the Wednesday status update, filed jointly with the Department of Justice, lawyers for the ACLU wrote that the Steering Committee has resolved more than 1,000 cases under its oversight but still has more work to do. Some of the parents of separated children have been removed from the United States and cannot be contacted, they said.

"We continue to try to reach the parents of the remaining 120 children. Most children's parents in this group of 120 —87 — are believed to have been removed from the United States following separation from their children; 33 children's parents are believed to be in the United States," the attorneys wrote.

The Biden administration has also entered into settlement discussions that remain ongoing four years later with families affected by the Trump administration policy, according to the status report. Some immigration advocacy groups have also criticized the Biden administration for separating family members while processing claims.