{"slug":"trump-first-term-family-separation-policy","title":"Zero Tolerance Family Separation: 5,500+ Children Separated at the Border","date":"2018-04-06","lastUpdated":"2020-10-30","description":"On April 6, 2018, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a 'zero tolerance' policy for illegal border crossing, directing prosecution of all adults caught crossing the border irregularly — including asylum seekers. Because children cannot be held in adult criminal detention, the policy resulted in systematic separation of children from their parents. More than 5,500 children were separated. Trump denied a policy existed, then signed an executive order reversing the separations on June 20, 2018, acknowledging the policy had been operating. By 2020, more than 500 children remained separated, with some parents deported to Central America without their children.","summary":"The zero tolerance policy was the direct cause of mass family separations: parents were referred for criminal prosecution, children were taken to Office of Refugee Resettlement shelters, and the two systems — criminal justice and child welfare — did not have adequate mechanisms to track and reunite families. Senior administration officials including Chief of Staff John Kelly had discussed using family separation as a deterrent as early as 2017. Trump publicly and repeatedly denied a family separation policy existed while it was operating. A federal court ordered family reunification; the government struggled to comply, partly because adequate records had not been kept linking children to parents.","category":"deportation-to-torture","severity":"critical","ongoing":false,"sources":[{"url":"https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/us/politics/family-separation-immigration.html","title":"Hundreds of Immigrant Children Have Been Taken From Parents at U.S. Border","publisher":"The New York Times"},{"url":"https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/trump-administration-officials-talk-of-taking-babies-from-parents-at-border/2018/05/22/story.html","title":"Trump officials talked of using family separation as deterrent in 2017","publisher":"The Washington Post"},{"url":"https://apnews.com/article/trump-family-separation-children-reunification","title":"Separated families: More than 500 children still not reunited years later","publisher":"The Associated Press"},{"url":"https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/oig-family-separation-report.pdf","title":"Separated Children Placed in Office of Refugee Resettlement Care","publisher":"HHS Office of Inspector General"}],"draft":false,"status":"published","tags":["family-separation","immigration","children","zero-tolerance","first-term","border","Sessions","asylum"],"relatedEntries":[],"timeline":[{"date":"2017-03-01","title":"DHS Kelly publicly mentions family separation as deterrent","summary":"DHS Secretary Kelly tells reporters that separating children from parents at the border is 'a tough deterrent' being considered. Internal discussions about using family separation as immigration policy begin more than a year before formal announcement."},{"date":"2018-04-06","title":"Sessions announces zero tolerance — separations begin at scale","summary":"AG Sessions formally announces zero tolerance policy directing prosecution of all illegal border crossings. Because children cannot be held in criminal detention, separations begin systematically. By June, more than 2,300 children have been separated."},{"date":"2018-06-14","title":"DHS Nielsen denies separation policy exists","summary":"DHS Secretary Nielsen states at a press conference she is 'not familiar with' reports of family separations and denies a policy exists. Thousands of children are separated at this time. The statement is false."},{"date":"2018-06-20","title":"Trump signs executive order reversing policy — acknowledges it existed","summary":"After sustained public pressure and bipartisan Congressional outrage, Trump signs an executive order directing families to be kept together. The order acknowledges the separation policy had been operating. A federal court had already ruled the separations unlawful in Ms. L. v. ICE."},{"date":"2018-06-26","title":"Federal court orders reunification — 30 days for under-5, 45 for others","summary":"Federal Judge Dana Sabraw orders full reunification of all separated families, with 30-day deadline for children under 5 and 45 days for older children. The government misses the deadlines; records linking children to parents are inadequate."},{"date":"2020-10-30","title":"Lawyers cannot find parents of 545 separated children","summary":"Court filings reveal that government lawyers cannot locate the parents of at least 545 separated children. Many parents were deported without their children. Contact information was not collected or was lost. The reunification process is still ongoing."}],"location":{"name":"U.S.-Mexico border","lat":29.7604,"lng":-104.8669},"custom":{"era":"first-term","posture":"judicial-finding","warCrimeClassification":"probable","internationalLaw":[{"statute":"Convention on the Rights of the Child","article":"Article 9","provision":"Prohibits separation of children from parents except when determined by competent authority to be in the child's best interest; mass separation as immigration deterrent with no child welfare determination for each case violates this standard"},{"statute":"International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights","article":"Article 17 / Article 23","provision":"Protection of family from arbitrary interference; using family separation as a policy deterrent constitutes arbitrary interference with family unity for persons asserting legal asylum claims"}],"iccRelevance":false,"victims":"5,500+ children separated from parents; parents subjected to criminal proceedings and deportation without their children; children held in facilities described in government inspections as overcrowded and inadequate; 500+ children still separated by October 2020, some with deported parents who could not be located","structuredPerpetrators":[{"name":"Donald Trump","role":"President; approved the zero tolerance policy; publicly denied a policy existed while it was operating; reversed the policy by executive order after public pressure; administration then failed to comply with court-ordered reunifications","institution":"White House"},{"name":"Jeff Sessions","role":"Attorney General; formally announced the zero tolerance policy on April 6, 2018; cited Biblical scripture in defending it; directed U.S. Attorneys to prosecute all illegal border crossings","institution":"U.S. Department of Justice"},{"name":"Kirstjen Nielsen","role":"Secretary of Homeland Security; initially denied family separations were a policy; later acknowledged the policy while defending it; resigned April 2019","institution":"Department of Homeland Security"}],"updateLog":[{"date":"2020-10-30","summary":"Updated with 545-children finding and ongoing reunification failures."}]}}