The US has pledged to provide a list of separated families and begin reunification efforts.

EFE Agency

The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to release on Monday a list of undocumented immigrant parents in ICE custody to whom they must hand over their children over the age of five, a reunification process he promised to begin this Friday.

During a hearing in a federal court in San Diego, Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the government on Monday to hand over such a list as part of the process of reuniting undocumented immigrant parents and children of that age or older who were separated after being detained at the border with Mexico.

The judge requested a list of undocumented immigrant parents currently held by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), as they would be the first to be reunited with their children. However, he stated that in subsequent days the government should do the same for parents in the custody of the Department of Justice who are either continuing their legal proceedings while at liberty or have already been repatriated.

In a document released Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reported identifying 2.551 children over the age of 5 who were separated at the border.

The government stated that it will begin this reunification process soon and that it will continue uninterrupted until the 26th, that is, within the deadline set by Judge Sabraw.

Sarah Fabian, a lawyer with the Department of Justice, stated that the process will be "different" from that for children under 5 years old and that the meetings will be held in eight detention centers across the country.

She insisted that providing a detailed list, as requested, could delay the process since it requires resources from ICE personnel and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), who could spend that time carrying out the reunifications.

"They had the resources to separate, to send each person to various parts of the country. To say today that they don't have the resources to reunify is madness," responded Bardis Vakili, the lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), at the end of the hearing.

At Friday's hearing, the judge acknowledged the government's efforts to reunite families in the case of children under 5, but asked that the process be "transparent."

ACLU lawyers insisted that, unlike what happened with the first group of children under 5, they need to be notified of the reunion location at least 12 hours in advance to understand each family's needs.