WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) today pressed Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar for specifics on what his agency is doing to reunite more than 2,000 children who were separated from their parents at the border – and why he’s been unable to speak to the one person he was told is responsible for reuniting 70 kids who were separated from their families and now being held in Homestead, Florida. Nelson asked the secretary directly, while he was testifying under oath, why he was not allowed to speak to the 70 children who were separated from their parents and are now being held at the Homestead facility Nelson visited Saturday. “On Saturday, I was not allowed, in the detention facility in Homestead, Florida, to speak with the 70 children that I was told that were there that had been separated from their parents,” Nelson said. “You should have been,” Azar admitted in response to Nelson. When Nelson then pressed Azar to explain his agency’s plan to reunite these separated children with their parents, Azar suggested that the solution rested with Congress and its ability to pass a bill that would allow these families to be detained together indefinitely by changing the current standards that prevent the Department of Homeland Security from detaining a child for more than 20 days. “So what is the plan to reunite 2,300 children?” Nelson asked. “We’re not allowed to have a child be with a parent who is in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security for more than 20 days, Azar responded, and so until we can get Congress to change that law to the forcible separation there of the family units, we’ll hold them or place them with another family relative in the United States.” Nelson concluded his questioning by asking the secretary why he has been unable to talk to the one woman he was told was in charge of reuniting the 70 children at Homestead, Florida. The secretary told Nelson that he would work with his office to arrange that call. Moments after Nelson finished questioning Azar, HHS did arrange a call for Nelson to speak to the staff at Homestead, Florida that is in charge of reuniting the 70 children there. On that call, Nelson was told that of the 70 children at Homestead who were separated from their families, 62 have contacted their parents, while another 8 have not. HHS officials told Nelson that the reason that the eight children have not been in contact with their parents is because HHS has been unable to locate them, and officials admitted to Nelson that the parents may have been deported already. Of the 62 children whose parents have been contacted, two have requested that their children be sent back to their home countries, while the other 60 have requested that HHS place them with sponsors or relatives in the U.S. HHS told Nelson that while they are not allowed to send any of the children to be with their parents at a detention facility here in the U.S., the agency is looking at setting up “family camps” where children and parents could be detained together. Nelson asked HHS what a “family camp” is, and how it would work. HHS officials told Nelson they do not know yet.