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At least 18 migrant infants and toddlers under the age of 2 were separated from their parents at the southern border as part of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, including nine infants under the age of 1, according to a new report released Friday by the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Those infants and toddlers were kept apart for 20 days to up to six months, the report found. The Democratic-led report was released just ahead of a hearing on alleged abuses committed against migrant children in the aftermath of the zero tolerance policy. (Weixel, 7/12)

The data, which the American Immigration Council and other immigrant advocacy groups requested from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, shows that almost 400 children were separated from their parents between June 2018 — when the Trump administration ended its controversial zero tolerance policy — and March 2019. That number jumped to more than 700 children by May, according to data the government provided to the American Civil Liberties Union, which is litigating the family separation crisis in federal court. (Roldan and Rocha, 7/12)

Some of the children were kept apart for as long as six months and 241 of the children were kept in Border Patrol custody longer than 72 hours, some as long as a week. Under federal regulations, migrant children must be transferred to shelters managed by the Department of Health and Human Services after three days in Border Patrol custody. “My hope is that we can all agree on several basic points,” Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, the committee chairman, said on Friday. “Anyone in the custody of our government — especially a child — must be treated humanely and with respect.” (Cochrane and Kanno-Youngs, 7/12)

The report, requested by Congressman Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat who is chairman of the committee, harshly criticized Trump’s “zero tolerance policy,” initiated in 2018, which referred all individuals who illegally crossed the border into the country to the U.S. Department of Justice for prosecution. Adults were sent to the custody of federal immigration authorities and placed in detention facilities. Migrant children were taken into the custody of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which is charged with operating detention centers for migrant children and with the family reunification process. (7/14)

From April to June 2018, thousands of children were separated from their parents when they sought asylum at the border. Many of these people were from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras and sought refuge from gang violence, hunger, poverty and corruption. The committee held a hearing on Friday about the report, where inspectors from the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services testified. At the hearing, the focus shifted from the report to the current treatment of migrants seeking asylum at the border. Jennifer Costello, acting inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security, said her office is concerned the department isn’t taking sufficient steps to remedy the situation. (Andrews and Naranjo, 7/12)

The committee's investigators noted they were still waiting on additional information from federal agencies under the subpoenas, which could result in more updates to the report. "The administration executed a deliberate policy to take thousands of babies, infants, toddlers, and children away from their parents and transfer them to government custody, in some cases in deplorable conditions," the report concluded.  (Wu, 7/12)

Last year, a court order in the case from US District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego forced the reunification of many immigrant families the government had separated at the border as a result of its "zero tolerance" policy. The majority have been reunited, according to the latest court filing in the case. (Alvarez, 7/12)

Officials from two federal agencies that oversee care for migrants are pointing fingers at each other over which bears more responsibility for children being detained for weeks on end in Border Patrol cells that have been widely criticized as unsafe. While the number of children held in such conditions declined sharply last month, according to federal data, the debate over how the situation became so dire remains heated. Kevin McAleenan, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, on Thursday said the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is charged with taking custody of children who cross the border alone after they are apprehended by border authorities, was slow to place them in shelters. (Caldwell, 7/12)

The Trump administration has agreed to allow a Stanford University pediatrician to conduct an independent investigation into health conditions for migrant children at US Customs and Border Protection facilities. The pediatrician, Dr. Paul Wise, toured detention centers at the border last summer and was critical of the conditions there, according to a Stanford publication. In that interview, Wise described how migrant children are kept in a "kind of cage-like" processing center. (Cohen and Bonifield, 7/12)