Mother reunites with 2 sons in Philly 3 years after being separated by ICE
PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (WABC) -- It was an emotional day for a mother and her two sons, who reunited on Wednesday after being separated three years ago under the Trump administration's border policy aimed at deterring illegal immigration.
It's been exactly 1,322 days since the two teens last saw their mom.
On Wednesday night, the mother from Honduras reunited with her boys, now 17 and 19, in Philadelphia, where they've been staying since September of 2017.
That was the day ICE agents ripped their family apart.
ICE held the boys' mother in detention in El Paso for two years and then deported her to Honduras, where she'd originally fled from to escape violence.
RELATED | Number of kids alone at border hits all-time high in March
This is the second reunion to take place under the Biden administration.
Earlier on Wednesday, 3,000 miles away, another long overdue reunion took place between Sandra Ortiz and her son Bryan.
Under former President Trump, immigration officers forcibly separated families at the border, deporting parents in an attempt to convince would be migrants to think twice before coming to the U.S.
But the Biden administration says their predecessors had no plan for reunifying families. In fact, there are still more than 400 children in the U.S. whose parents have yet to be located.
This week ICE officials reunified just four families, but they say these tearful celebrations are the first of many.
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