Each family faces their own unique issues, said Christie Turner-Herbas, director of special programs at Kids in Need of Defense (KIND), an organization that provides legal aid to unaccompanied immigrant children and works with parents separated by the Trump administration.
In the case of one family, the parent who was returning to the US was no longer with the parent whom the children were staying with, Turner-Herbas said. Figuring out where one parent was going to live and how moving out of a home would affect the children is just one of the many issues that separated families have to quickly figure out. Other children might have a hard time accepting their parents back into their daily lives, she said.
“It’s an emotional reunion and also one that is very impactful for a child because three years in the life of a child is a large portion,” Turner-Herbas told BuzzFeed News. “These parents may have expectations and hopes of how things will go, but really it may be different once the honeymoon period is over.”