But there’s a couple of numbers that have received significantly less attention in most news reports about the ACLU’s legal fight: 485, the number of children whose parents have been located, and 0, how many of those parents have sought to have their children returned home.

Chase Jennings, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman, said in a prepared statement the department has “taken every step to facilitate the reunification of these families where the parents wanted such reunification to occur.”

“The simple fact is this: after contact has been made with the parents to reunite them with their children, many parents have refused,” he said, noting that “out of the 485 children whom plaintiffs’ counsel has been able to contact, they have yet to identify a single family that wants their child reunited with them in their country of origin.”