Administration reports nearly 1,200 family reunifications

SAN DIEGO — The Trump administration says nearly 1,200 family reunifications have occurred for children 5 and older who were separated at the U.S.Mexico border, still leaving hundreds to go before a court-imposed deadline.

The Justice Department said in a court filing Monday that there have been 1,187 reunifications “or other appropriate discharges” by the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Refugee Resettlement. The filing doesn’t elaborate on “other appropriate discharges.”

The administration has identified 2,551 children 5 and older who have been separated from their families.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw has set a deadline of Thursday for the government to reunite all older children with their parents. He set an earlier deadline for children under 5.

Meanwhile, a separate federal judge has denied the Trump administration’s bid to throw out a lawsuit that alleges its decision to end special protections shielding Haitian, Salvadoran and Honduran immigrants from deportation was racially motivated.

Judge Denise Casper in Boston on Monday also denied the administration’s request to remove Trump as a defendant in the case.

The lawsuit had been filed by the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice in February and seeks to block the administration from terminating temporary protected status for thousands of immigrants from those three countries.

Last month, a judge in San Francisco refused to throw out a similar lawsuit challenging the administration’s decision to end the special protections.