“As far as advocates within the campaign, we’re all aligned on this. Family separation was a form of torture carried out in the government’s name and it must never be repeated,” said Bilal Askaryar, communications coordinator for the Women’s Refugee Commission’s #WelcomeWithDignity campaign. “As far as specifics about the settlement, the only confusion seems to be coming from within the administration.”

Other advocates see the back-and-forth over settlement talks as just another phase in the Biden administration’s fitful approach to immigration reform, in which many of the Trump administration’s most onerous policies have remained functionally in effect.

“Unfortunately, this is part and parcel with so many of Biden’s campaign promises on immigration,” said Amy Fischer, an advocacy director at Amnesty International USA. “He promised to reassert America’s commitment to asylum-seekers and refugees, yet he continues Trump-era policies that deny tens of thousands of asylum-seekers their human right to seek asylum and has yet to follow through on promises to separated families. We need more.”