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The policy, announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the spring, called for the mandatory detention of any adult crossing the border illegally. It was a departure from past administrations, which had in most cases released families into the United States pending future court dates. Sessions and others within the Trump administration derided this approach as “catch and release,” and blamed it for a rise in illegal immigration in the U.S.

But the new zero-tolerance policy sparked a public outcry, following reports that nearly 2,000 children traveling with their families had been separated at the border in a six-week span. By June 20, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to end the practice.

On June 23, DHS released a fact sheet that stated “there is a central database which HHS and DHS can access and update when a parent(s) or minor(s) location information changes.”

But investigators said the most they found was a “manually-compiled spreadsheet” called a “matching table” maintained by HHS along with border patrol and immigration authorities. This spreadsheet wasn’t created, however, until the same day that DHS released its fact sheet, according to the IG.

DHS said in its letter to investigators that the report didn’t give the federal government enough credit for trying to connect families after separating them.

“Despite the fact that the two Departments’ tracking systems have no director electronic interface, the government took exhaustive efforts to overcome this challenge and stand up a process to safely reunify families expeditiously in compliance” with a court order.

Waldman of DHS defended the administration’s tough approach to immigration as still necessary.

“This administration will no longer turn a blind eye to illegal immigration and will continue to refer illegal border crossers for prosecution,” she said in a statement. “We are committed to enforcing the rule of law and ensuring that there are consequences for illegal actions.”

As of Sept. 20, according to figures released by the IG, about 2,250 eligible children had been reunited or released from custody, down from about 2,650. Of the 103 children under age 5 taken into custody, 84 have been reunited.

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