Biden task force to arrange reunifications of 4 migrant families separated under Trump, and they could be the first of "many"
CBSN
The U.S. government is expected this week to arrange the reunification of four migrant families who were separated during the Trump administration as part of President Biden's effort to make amends to parents and children affected by a policy he has decried as cruel.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said the Biden administration will allow a small group of parents to enter the U.S. legally this week to reunite with their children, who have been living in the U.S. since their forced separations. During a call with reporters on Sunday, Mayorkas called the Trump-era separations a "tragedy." "The first families reuniting this week are mothers. They are sons. They are daughters. They are children who were three-years-old at the time of separation. They are teenagers who have had to live without their parents during their most formative years," Mayorkas added.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.