Feds: Finding all migrant children separated from their families may be impossible

Sualog said her office doesn’t have the resources to track down the children, whose numbers could be thousands more than the official estimate.

“Even if performing the analysis Plaintiffs seek were within the realm of the possible, it would substantially imperil ORR’s ability to perform its core functions without significant increases in appropriations from Congress, and a rapid, dramatic expansion of the ORR data team,” she said.

Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney in the suit being heard by U.S. District Court Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego, called the response “shocking.”

“The Trump administration’s response is a shocking concession that it can’t easily find thousands of children it ripped from parents, and doesn’t even think it’s worth the time to locate each of them,” he said in a statement. “The administration also doesn’t dispute that separations are ongoing in significant numbers.”