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A U.S. judge on Thursday appeared open to ordering the government to find potentially thousands of additional children separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border by the Trump administration, which could greatly expand the scope of a lawsuit challenging the separations. U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw in San Diego called a January report by an internal government watchdog that found the U.S. government had started implementing its policy of separating families months before it was announced "a very significant event." (Cooke, 2/21)

The report, from the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, estimated that the separations extended beyond the 2,700-plus children identified in a class-action lawsuit over President Trump’s border crackdown, which drew widespread condemnation, including from Republicans. “I was shocked to hear that there were thousands who were separated,” Lee Gelernt, an ACLU lawyer who represents the parents, told U.S. District Judge Dana M. Sabraw during a hearing in San Diego, adding that they could be at risk of being “permanently orphaned.” (Sacchetti and Perry, 2/21)