Inside the effort to release 20,000 migrant children in U.S. custody to sponsors

Most of the 13 migrant boys waiting inside the small airport in this south Texas city were still wearing the gray sweatpants and sweatshirts the U.S. government gave them after they crossed the southern border alone.

The 5 p.m. takeoff to Houston earlier this month had been delayed by about an hour, leaving them at risk of missing their connecting flight. Once the plane arrived, the boys boarded the commercial flight alongside three government contractors and, coincidentally, this reporter. Families with young children released from Border Patrol custody were also...