Nightly Nuance - February 9, 2021

Hello my friends. I know it's Tuesday, February 9th but I definitely said February 8th.  I also know many of you are watching the Senate trial of former President Trump. Sarah and I will process that on Thursday and Friday. For today, let's turn our attention to President Biden's efforts to deal with the previous administration's separation of families at the southern border. 

We know that at least 5,500 children were separated from their parents between July 2017 and July 2018. The Washington Post reports that 1000 families are still separated; Politico puts this number at 600. And this is the problem. The government's record keeping was so poor that we really don't have an understanding of where parents and children who were part of this program are today. 

To begin addressing this challenge, President Biden issued two executive orders last week: one on establishing a regional framework to deal with root causes of migration from the Northern Triangle and one creating an interagency task force on family reunification.  

Advocates say these orders are a good start, but that more is needed. The Biden administration has indicated that it knows these are just first steps in a multi-step process. 

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