some 700 remain in government custody as a court ordered deadline to reunite families expired. the group that brought the lawsuit, aclu, disagreeing over eligibility points. the hard work beginning. the government not offering a timeline to track down the parents deported or otherwise unaccounted for. here is tal kopan. >> reporter: the deadline has come and gone and we have new numbers on how many of those were reunited on time. the government last night gave us an update that roughly 1,400 of the families were eligible and reunited by thursday evening. they said another almost 400 of those children that they identified were released from health and human services custody. they did not specify if those were to a parent or some who went to families or friends in the country. that leaves about 700 children who were not reunited with a parent by the court deadline. that breaks down mostly with parents who are actually no longer in the country. presumably deported. there are parents they say declined to be reunified and those with criminal or safety issues in the background