The US government still can't find the parents of 628 migrant children, Trump administration says in new court filing

• The US government still can't find the parents of 628 migrant children separated from their families, federal agencies said in a new court filing.
• They've reached the parents of only 38 kids in the past month.
• It also asked the judge overseeing the case if it can provide less frequent updates on the progress "given the relatively low number of separations."

The federal government has still not reached the parents of 628 children separated by immigration authorities from their families during the Trump administration, according to a new court filing.

NBC News reported in early November that the parents of 666 children couldn't be located. The new figure means that the parents of only 38 more children have been located in the past month.

The American Civil Liberties Union and a group of federal immigration agencies revealed updated figures in a joint court filing Wednesday night. It's a status update in a lawsuit where the ACLU sued the agency over President Donald Trump's policy to separate migrant children from their families when they crossed the border. Trump later reversed the policy following international outcry.

The federal government identified 1,198 children who had been separated from their families overall. The "Steering Committee" seeking to reunite those children with their families has so far reached the parents of 570 children.

Of the 628 children whose families have still not been located, 295 are believed to have been deported from the United States, according to the filing.

In the filing, the federal agencies also asked Judge Dana Sabraw, who is overseeing the lawsuit, to allow them to update the ACLU on a quarterly rather than monthly basis "given the relatively low number of separations."

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to create a task force to reunite the families on his first day as president.