EL PASO, Texas — Hundreds of children have been reunited with their families. Most have not. U.S. Customs and Border Protection informed CBS News Friday evening that they expect to reunite the remaining 1,800 families by Sunday. President Trump has ordered authorities to stop separating families at the border.
At the border, the government is also trying to clear up who gets prosecuted and who does not. Confusion, however, hasn’t stopped border crossings.
Video captures the moment four people tried to illegally cross into the U.S. through a canal system in El Paso. Agents pulled them to safety.
“It may look calm on the surface. The undercurrents are very dangerous,” one agent said.
These cases will end up at courthouses along the border, where confusion stemming from President Trump’s executive order is settling in.
Shane McMahon’s client from El Salvador was charged with crossing into the U.S. illegally. He was separated from his 16-year-old son, and on Friday, those charges were suddenly dropped.
“I think what’s happening is that everybody’s trying to figure out how the order applies to us and what to do with it,” McMahon said.
The Trump administration says that nearly 500 children have been reunited with family. More than 1,800 remain separated from parents, who are desperate for answers.
Handwritten notes saying “I do not know when i”ll be able to see my child again” are included in a lawsuit filed against the government by a jailed mother trying to find her child.
But Friday morning in Maryland, after nearly a month of separation, it was an emotional reunion for Beata Mejia-Mejia and her 7-year-old son, Darwin. They walked most of the way from Guatemala, crossing into the U.S. illegally when they saw American flags near the Arizona border.
Mejia-Mejia says they had no idea what a port of entry was or that they were breaking the law.
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