There is a piece of good news for US-Mexico border families who were separated during the Trump administration. The White House said this week for the first time that it will support permanent legal status for families affected.

The new stance comes at the one-year mark of a task force set up by the Biden administration to help reunify family members.

“We are advocating Congress that they provide these individuals with legal status—that requires a statutory change,” said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.

“The White House is 100 percent supportive of it, as am I, and we continue to advocate vigorously for it,” he said Monday.

According to the NBC site, the reunification task force was established on Feb. 2, 2021. The administration has been working to unite entire families, meaning siblings of separated children would be eligible for permanent legal status if Congress passes legislation that aligns with the White House’s goal.

When asked about the matter Tuesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said, “We stand by Secretary Mayorkas.”

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Michelle Brané, executive director of the task force, said this week that as many as 1,200 families remain separated. Approximately 130 have been reunited since Biden took office, she said, and 400 or more reunifications are in progress.

It could be that “some of those families have reunified on their own and we just don’t have documentation of that. But we will continue to do outreach to all of those families until we find out.”

More than 5,600 children were separated from their parents as part of the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy and a pilot program that preceded it. Physicians for Human Rights said the separations met the United Nations’ definition of “torture,” and the American Academy of Pediatrics said they amounted to “government-sanctioned child abuse.” As a candidate, President Joe Biden called the policy “criminal.”

Mayorkas declined to say whether the Trump administration should be held accountable for implementing the policy.

“I myself have met with some of the separated families. I learned firsthand the trauma that they underwent, and some continue to endure, and it is that that motivates us to make sure that any family that was separated by the prior administration is brought together again,” said Mayorkas.

When asked if it’s possible to reunite all of the families, Brané said she is hopeful.

“And that is still our target and it’s still our goal to reach all the families and reunify all of those who want to be reunified. Who wants to travel to the United States to be with their children. We are working towards that,” she said.

So far, the families have received little to no financial relief. The Biden administration in December walked away from negotiations to financially compensate the separated families.

Democratic lawmakers last year introduced legislation that would provide a pathway to permanent legal status. The bill has not advanced in the House or Senate.