There are, as of right now, no set protocols for reuniting families who have been separated; children and parents are funneled into two separate and highly complex systems, which immigration attorneys, advocates, and aid groups have been attempting to navigate. I spoke with Maria Woltjen, the executive director and founder of the Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights at the University of Chicago Law School, and Kelly Albinak Kribs, Immigrant Child Rights Fellow and staff attorney at the Young Center, to get a better idea of what this process actually looks like.

Once a parent is charged with illegal entry, they’re taken into U.S. Marshal custody, then returned to ICE custody, and their child is handed off to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. They’ll face different legal timelines and potentially be moved around to separate parts of the country. With no internet, limited phone access, and extremely limited access to legal representation, it can be very difficult for a detained parent to find out where their child is in the first place—and once they do, their desperation to be reunited can impact their legal trajectory.

“Once a parent can locate a child, they come to a crossroads,” Albinak-Kribs told Jezebel. “There’s a crucial decision they have to make: Whether they want to stay and fight their legal case, fight for the right to stay here in the United States with their child, or whether they would just prefer to return home with their child. Depending on what the parent chooses, depending on their own personal circumstances, the process for reunification looks very different.” But both paths can take months.

This conversation has been lightly edited and condensed for length and clarity.

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