Fact Checker: The facts about Trump's policy of separating families at the border
The president and top administration officials say U.S. laws or court rulings are forcing them to separate families who are caught trying to cross the southern border.
These claims are false. Immigrant families are being separated primarily because the Trump administration in April began to prosecute as many border-crossing offenses as possible. This “zero-tolerance policy” applies to all adults, regardless of whether they cross alone or with their children.
The Trump administration implemented this policy by choice and could end it by choice. No law or court ruling mandates family separations. In fact, during its first 15 months, the Trump administration released nearly 100,000 immigrants who were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, a total that includes more than 37,500 unaccompanied minors and more than 61,000 family members.
Children continue to be released to their relatives or to shelters. But since the zero-tolerance policy took effect, parents as a rule are being prosecuted. Any conviction in those proceedings would be grounds for deportation.
Since 2014, hundreds of thousands of Central American children and families have fled to the United States because of rampant violence and gang activity in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. U.S. laws provide asylum or refugee status to qualified applicants, but the Trump administration says smugglers and bad actors are exploiting these same laws to gain entry. Nielsen says the government has detected hundreds of cases of fraud among migrants traveling with children who are not their own. Trump says he wants to close what he describes as “loopholes” in these humanitarian-relief laws.
The Central American refugee crisis developed during President Barack Obama’s administration and continues under Trump. The two administrations have taken different approaches. The Justice Department under Obama prioritized the deportation of dangerous individuals. Once he took office, Trump issued an executive order rolling back much of the Obama-era framework.
Obama’s guidelines prioritized the deportation of gang members, national-security risks and those who had committed felonies. Trump’s January 2017 executive order does not include a priority list for deportations and refers only to “criminal offenses,” which is broad enough to encompass serious felonies on one hand and misdemeanors on the other.
Adding it all up, this means the Trump administration is operating a system in which immigrant families that are apprehended at the border necessarily get split up, since children go into a process in which they eventually get placed with sponsors inside the country while their parents are prosecuted and potentially deported.
This is a question of Trump and his Cabinet choosing to enforce some laws over others. The legal landscape did not change between the time when the Trump administration released nearly 100,000 immigrants during its first 15 months and the time when the zero-tolerance policy took effect in April 2018.
Sessions, who otherwise owns up to what’s happening, has suggested the Flores settlement and a court ruling are forcing his hand. They’re not. At heart, this is an issue of prosecutorial discretion: his discretion.
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Sessions quoting the Bible to support a cruel and unChristian policy is heretical. But then the Bible was evoked top support slavery in America as well.
The president and top administration officials say U.S. laws or court rulings are forcing them to separate families who are caught trying to cross the southern border.
These claims are false. Immigrant families are being separated primarily because the Trump administration in April began to prosecute as many border-crossing offenses as possible. This “zero-tolerance policy” applies to all adults, regardless of whether they cross alone or with their children.
The Trump administration implemented this policy by choice and could end it by choice. No law or court ruling mandates family separations. In fact, during its first 15 months, the Trump administration released nearly 100,000 immigrants who were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border, a total that includes more than 37,500 unaccompanied minors and more than 61,000 family members.
Children continue to be released to their relatives or to shelters. But since the zero-tolerance policy took effect, parents as a rule are being prosecuted. Any conviction in those proceedings would be grounds for deportation.
Since 2014, hundreds of thousands of Central American children and families have fled to the United States because of rampant violence and gang activity in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. U.S. laws provide asylum or refugee status to qualified applicants, but the Trump administration says smugglers and bad actors are exploiting these same laws to gain entry. Nielsen says the government has detected hundreds of cases of fraud among migrants traveling with children who are not their own. Trump says he wants to close what he describes as “loopholes” in these humanitarian-relief laws.
The Central American refugee crisis developed during President Barack Obama’s administration and continues under Trump. The two administrations have taken different approaches. The Justice Department under Obama prioritized the deportation of dangerous individuals. Once he took office, Trump issued an executive order rolling back much of the Obama-era framework.
Obama’s guidelines prioritized the deportation of gang members, national-security risks and those who had committed felonies. Trump’s January 2017 executive order does not include a priority list for deportations and refers only to “criminal offenses,” which is broad enough to encompass serious felonies on one hand and misdemeanors on the other.
Adding it all up, this means the Trump administration is operating a system in which immigrant families that are apprehended at the border necessarily get split up, since children go into a process in which they eventually get placed with sponsors inside the country while their parents are prosecuted and potentially deported.
This is a question of Trump and his Cabinet choosing to enforce some laws over others. The legal landscape did not change between the time when the Trump administration released nearly 100,000 immigrants during its first 15 months and the time when the zero-tolerance policy took effect in April 2018.
Sessions, who otherwise owns up to what’s happening, has suggested the Flores settlement and a court ruling are forcing his hand. They’re not. At heart, this is an issue of prosecutorial discretion: his discretion.
********************************************************************************************
Sessions quoting the Bible to support a cruel and unChristian policy is heretical. But then the Bible was evoked top support slavery in America as well.
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