About 500 separated immigrant children reunited with families

Roughly 500 immigrant children who were separated from their families at the southern border have been reunited with their families since May, a senior administration official confirms to CBS News. 

The Associated Press first reported that about 500 of the more than 2,000 children separated had been reunited. On Wednesday, Mr. Trump signed an executive order halting the family separations, but the administration has yet to publicly lay out its plan for reuniting families. 

A senior Trump administration official the AP spoke with said many of the children were reunited within days. The official wasn’t sure how many of the reunited children remain in custody with their families or how many are no longer in the country. The official told the AP that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, along with Health and Human Services, are working to set up a centralized reunification process at the Port Isabel Detention Center near Los Fresnos, Texas.

The family separations at the border have sparked outrage and protests, pressuring Mr. Trump to sign his executive order. But that order doesn’t necessarily prevent family separations after 20 days, as CBS News’ Paula Reid has reported.

On Friday morning, protesters showed up near Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen’s home, urging her to free the children and reunite them with their parents.  

Meanwhile, the legislative push to solve the family separation issue seems to have hit a speed bump in Congress. House Republicans had delayed a vote on a GOP compromise bill until next week, after some conservative members expressed concerns. But on Friday morning, the president tweeted Republicans should “stop wasting their time” on immigration until after the November elections. Republicans, who are facing challenges coalescing around a single bill now, are expected to lose seats in November, if they even hold the House.

— CBS News’ Gabrielle Ake contributed to this report