Officials scramble to reunite families

Last-minute flights and caravans of confused children were the city’s sad symbols of the Trump administration’s eleventh-hour efforts to abide by a court-imposed deadline to reunite thousands of children and parents forcibly separated at the southern border.

Gov. Cuomo provided heartbreaking examples Thursday of what he called the “gross incompetence” of federal officials’ attempts to get kids back in the arms of their parents.

The Cayuga Centers, a New York-based organization that housed hundreds of kids ripped from their families in recent weeks, were given a list Wednesday of 80 children whom the feds said would be sent back to their parents.

The problem was most of the kids on the list weren’t being housed at the center’s East Harlem facility.

A corrected list containing 14 names was sent along, giving the caregivers and the kids’ lawyers only a few hours’ notice to get to LaGuardia Airport for a 2 a.m. flight, Cuomo said.

But upon arriving at the airport, the group was told only seven kids were booked on flights.

The feds then directed Cayuga staff to whisk the remaining seven children to Westchester County Airport for a flight. Once at the transit hub, only two of the kids were given tickets.

The remaining five children, all siblings, returned to Cayuga’s Park Ave. facility at 5 a.m. after being told they were ineligible for reunification with their parents because their mom and dad had criminal records.

By 9 a.m., the feds had once again changed their tune and contacted Cayuga, saying the siblings would be reunited with their families.

There were more than 30 children separated from their parents still at the site as of Thursday afternoon — with no plans for reunification, Cuomo said.

On Thursday night, federal immigration officials said that 1,442 children were back together with their families and promised all “eligible” kids to be reunited by the deadline. However, there will still be 711 that cannot return to their parents.