Washington, July 23 (RHC)-- In the United States, only 60 of the more than 100 children under the age of five whom immigration officials separated from their parents have been reunited, despite a court-imposed deadline requiring all of these young children be reunited. 

The Trump administration now says could not reunite 46 of the children because their parents have been accused of crimes, because the children were not related to the people they were separated from, or, in at least a dozen cases, because U.S. immigration authorities had already deported their parents. 

In total, about 3,000 separated children are detained in facilities across the United States.  A federal judge has ordered all separated children be reunited with their parents by this Thursday, July 26th. 

Meanwhile, the Trump administration has announced a new asylum policy at the U.S.-Mexico border, which instructs immigration officers to immediately reject asylum seekers who say they are fleeing gangs or domestic violence.  It also instructs immigration officers to consider whether asylum seekers crossed the border outside legal ports of entry and to weigh that against their asylum claims. 

U.S. Border Patrol agents have been stationed on the Mexico side of the bridges at legal ports of entry up and down the border, prohibiting asylum seekers from entering “legally,” forcing many to cross at unauthorized entry points.