245 children from separated immigrant families still in US custody

Washington: A total of 245 children from separated undocumented immigrant families were still in US custody, officials said in a court filing.

According to government figures, most of the 245 children in custody have parents who were removed from the US, reports CNN.

Of those, only 18 children are currently in the pipeline to reunite with their parents in their countries of origin, the court filings said on Monday night.

Deported parents of 125 children in custody have said they don't want their children to be returned to the countries of origin and there were 32 others in government custody for whom the American Civil Liberties Union has not yet provided notice of whether parents want to reunify or decline reunification, officials said.

The new numbers come as President Donald Trump's administration considers a new pilot programme that could result in the separations of children and parents once again.

A status hearing in the family separations case is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

In June, US District Judge Dana Sabraw ordered the government to reunite most of the families it had divided, including parents and children who had been separated as a result of the administration's now-reversed "zero tolerance" policy at the border and some separations that occurred before that policy was put in place, reports CNN.

Since then, 2,070 children have been discharged from government custody and reunited with parents, according to Monday's court filing.