Biden to start reunifying migrant families

Four migrant families separated at the border by the Trump administration will be reunited this week.

That's according to the White House. It's a small step toward fulfilling a campaign promise by U.S. President Joe Biden.

The prior administration's so-called "zero-tolerance" policy prosecuted parents who crossed the border illegally, and separated thousands of children from their parents without a plan to reunite them. In many cases, parents were deported without their kids.

Biden called family separations under Trump a "human tragedy."

[BIDEN ON FEBRUARY 2, 2021] "We're going to work to undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration that literally not figuratively ripped children from the arms of their families - their mothers and fathers at the border, and with no plan."

On a call with reporters, the head of the Department of Homeland Security gave no specific details about the families but said the children were in the U.S. and parents would be allowed to enter through a process called "humanitarian parole."

Lee Gelernt, lead attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, estimates that there may be more than a thousand children still separated from their parents.

In recent months, the Biden administration has been grappling with a sharp rise in migrant crossings at the border -mostly from Central America.

In some cases, families with children are being sent back across the border to Mexico.