Establishment of Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families
Establishes a cabinet-level Interagency Task Force to identify and reunite children separated from their families at the U.S.-Mexico border between 2017 and 2021 under the Zero-Tolerance Policy, and revokes the 2018 executive order that enabled that separation policy.
Creates reporting obligations up to one year out and directs agencies to develop recommendations for preventing future family separations, while stopping short of directly granting immigration status to any individual.
What this order does
What it orders
The order establishes the Interagency Task Force on the Reunification of Families, chaired by the Secretary of Homeland Security with the Secretaries of State and HHS as vice chairs. It directs the Task Force to identify all children separated at the U.S.-Mexico border from January 20, 2017, through January 20, 2021, and to facilitate their reunification with families to the greatest extent possible. The Task Force must provide agencies and the President with recommendations on using parole authority, visa issuance, and other immigration tools — as well as trauma and mental health services — to support reunification. It also revokes Executive Order 13841 of June 20, 2018.
The order does not itself grant any visa, parole, or immigration benefit to any individual. All such grants require future agency action following Task Force recommendations. The Task Force has no independent enforcement authority; it can only recommend. It terminates 30 days after submitting its final report to the President.
Who it affects
Children under 18 who were separated from their parents or legal guardians at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Zero-Tolerance Policy era, their families, and the Departments of Homeland Security, State, Health and Human Services, and Justice, which must staff and fund the Task Force.
Why it matters
Separated children and their families gain a formal federal mechanism dedicated to locating them and facilitating reunification. Whether any individual family is actually reunited depends on future agency decisions following Task Force recommendations — no immigration relief is granted by the order itself.
What must happen and when
How the order is supposed to work
The Task Force is funded and staffed primarily by DHS, with other member agencies able to detail personnel under the Economy Act. It operates in stages: identify affected children first, then develop and transmit reunification recommendations to agency heads and the President. Progress reports flow to the President at 120 days, then every 60 days, with a policy-reform recommendations report due at one year. The Task Force is self-terminating — it dissolves 30 days after delivering its final report, and it is explicitly barred from creating any legally enforceable rights.
Actions and deadlines
- Submit initial progress report to the President on reunification efforts
- Submit interim progress reports to the President every 60 days after the initial report
- Submit recommendations to prevent future family separation policies and practices
- Submit final report to the President when the Task Force has completed its mission
- Task Force terminates 30 days after submitting the final report
Agencies directed to act
Authority and reach
What this order changes
Revokes Executive Order 13841