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Some Wait, Some Embrace: The Agonizing Realities of Family Reunification (40 photos)

Last week, a court-ordered deadline passed, one set for the federal government to reunify more than 2,500 children separated from their families when they attempted to cross the United States border. Government officials say they have now reunited more than 1,800 families, but some are still waiting.  According to a lawsuit, as reported by Reuters, more than 450 immigrant parents have been deported without their children, and their futures are even more uncertain. For the families who have been reunited, the meetings can be bittersweet—happy endings to weeks or months of forced separation—and their living situations remain the same, with conditions that drove them to seek asylum in the first place. Gathered here are images of recent reunifications, parents who still wait, and some of the detention facilities and centers that housed these children across the United States since June.

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(1 of 3) A woman, identified only as Maria, is reunited with her son Franco, 4, after a month-long separation, at the El Paso International Airport in El Paso, Texas, on July 26, 2018. Maria, originally from Guatemala, was reunited with Franco, who was being held in New York for the previous month, after being separated when they crossed into the United States. (Joe Raedle / Getty)
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https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/07/some-wait-some-embrace-the-agonizing-realities-of-family-reunification/566330/