Global InformationTrump administration family separation policy information
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The United States family separation policy under the Trump administration was presented to the public as a "zero tolerance" approach intended to deter illegal immigration and to encourage tougher legislation.[1] In some cases, families following the legal procedure to apply for asylum at official border crossings were also separated. It was officially adopted across the entire US–Mexico border from April 2018 until June 2018.[2] Under the policy, federal authorities separated children and infants from parents or guardians with whom they had entered the US.[3][4][5] The adults were prosecuted and held in federal jails or deported, and the children were placed under the supervision of the US Department of Health and Human Services.[3] More than 5,500 children, including infants, were removed and up to 2,000 still have not been reunited as of March 2024.[6][7][8][9][10]
By early June 2018, it emerged that the policy did not include measures to reunite the families that it had separated.[11][12] Following national and international criticism,[13] on June 20, 2018, Trump signed an executive order ending family separations at the border.[14] On June 26, 2018, US District Judge Dana Sabraw issued a nationwide preliminary injunction against the family separation policy and ordered that all children be reunited with their parents within thirty days.[15][16] In 2019, a release of emails obtained by NBC News revealed that although the administration had said that they would use the government's "central database" to reconnect the thousands of families that had been separated, the government had only enough information to reconnect sixty children with their parents.[17] By November 2020, the parents of 666 children still had not been found.[18] The administration refused to provide funds to cover the expenses of reuniting families, and volunteer organizations provided both volunteers and funding.[19][20][21]
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform reported in July 2019 that over 700 children had been separated from their parents after the policy's official end.[22] In July, it was reported that as many as five children per day were being separated,[23] and by the end of the year, the total had reached over 1,100.[10]
In January 2019, an investigation showed that the child separation policy had actually begun in the summer of 2017, prior to the zero tolerance policy announced in April 2018.[24] Federal officials said there were no plans to attempt to reunite these children because "it would destabilize the permanency of their existing home environment, and could be traumatic to the children."[25][26][27]
In June 2019, a group of attorneys with the Flores settlement visited a Border Patrol center in Clint, Texas. The children told the lawyers that meals consisted of instant oatmeal, a cookie and sweetened drink for breakfast, instant noodles for lunch, and a heated frozen burrito and a cookie for dinner. They said they had not had a clean change of clothing or a bath for weeks. There were no adult caretakers; girls as young as ten were taking care of the younger ones.[28][29][30]
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
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lead ref 2was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
horwitz12was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ "Transcript: Sen. Susan Collins on 'Face the Nation'". Face the Nation. CBS News. June 17, 2018. Archived from the original on October 3, 2019. Retrieved June 17, 2018.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Everettwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ French, Piper (February 27, 2024). "Will the Families Separated by Trump Ever Be Reunited?". Intelligencer. Retrieved March 2, 2024.
- ^ Shapiro, Ari; Hodges, Lauren; Intagliata, Christopher (August 9, 2022). "Investigation reveals how government bureaucracy failed to stop family separations". NPR. Retrieved August 14, 2022.
- ^ Narea, Nicole (October 25, 2019). "The Trump administration just admitted that it separated an additional 1,500 immigrant families". Vox. Retrieved April 20, 2022.
- ^ "Family separation under the Trump administration—a timeline". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
- ^ a b "Looking At Lasting Effects Of Trump's Family Separation Policy At The Southern Border". NPR. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
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GoodwinToolwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
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lead ref 3was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
lead ref 4was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
FedJudgeInjunctionwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Cite error: The named reference
PrelimInjunctionTextwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Soboroff, Jacob. "Emails show Trump admin had 'no way to link' separated migrant children to parents". NBC News. Retrieved May 8, 2019.
- ^ Soboroff, Jacob; Ainsley, Julia. "Lawyers say they can't find the parents of 545 migrant children separated by Trump administration". NBC News. Retrieved November 10, 2020.
- ^ "Why hundreds of migrant children remain separated from their parents". PBS NewsHour. October 21, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ Ainsley, Julia; Soboroff, Jacob. "Lawyers: We can't find parents of 545 kids separated by Trump administration". NBC News. Retrieved October 21, 2020.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Dickersonwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ U.S. House of Representatives. Committee on Oversight and Reform (July 2019), Child Separations by the Trump Administration (PDF), archived (PDF) from the original on August 13, 2019
- ^ Roldan, Riane; Rocha, Alana (July 12, 2019). "Family separations aren't over. As many as five kids per day are separated from their parents at the border". The Texas Tribune. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
auditwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Long, Colleen; Alonso-Zaldivar, Ricardo (January 18, 2019). "Watchdog: Thousands More Children May Have Been Separated". U.S. News & World Report. Associated Press. Archived from the original on January 19, 2019. Retrieved January 19, 2019.
- ^ Spagat, Elliot (February 3, 2019). "US sees limitations on reuniting migrant families". Associated Press. Archived from the original on February 4, 2019.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
ABCsteepwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Attanasio, Cedar; Burke, Garance; Mendoza, Martha (June 21, 2019). "Attorneys: Texas border facility is neglecting migrant kids". Associated Press. Archived from the original on October 26, 2019. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
- ^ "Are US child migrant detainees entitled to soap and beds?". BBC News. June 20, 2019. Archived from the original on June 27, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2019.
- ^ Chotiner, Isaac (June 22, 2019). "Inside a Texas Building Where the Government Is Holding Immigrant Children". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on June 23, 2019. Retrieved June 23, 2019.