During a conference call with reporters and U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw on Friday afternoon, government officials acknowledged that as many as 20 percent of the youngest children ripped from their parents on Donald Trump's orders won't be reunified with their families any time soon.
The revelation comes a day after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar assured the public that the government would meet the court's July 10 deadline to reunite children under the age of 5 with their parents, only to immediately backtrack.
On a conference call, officials from HHS said they expect approximately half of the roughly 100 children under the age of five to be reunited with their parents by Tuesday, the deadline imposed by Judge Sabraw in a decision last week.
But they also acknowledged that they do not know the whereabouts of the parents of roughly 20 percent of the toddlers still in custody, and likely won't meet the July 10 deadline.
