Former ICE Head: Trump Admin’s Family Separations Could Be Permanent

on June 19, 2018 in Tornillo, Texas.
TORNILLO, TX - JUNE 19: Children and workers are seen at a tent encampment recently built near the Tornillo Port of Entry on June 19, 2018 in Tornillo, Texas. The Trump administration is using the Tornillo tent faci... TORNILLO, TX - JUNE 19: Children and workers are seen at a tent encampment recently built near the Tornillo Port of Entry on June 19, 2018 in Tornillo, Texas. The Trump administration is using the Tornillo tent facility to house immigrant children separated from their parents after they were caught entering the U.S. under the administration's zero tolerance policy. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) MORE LESS
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A former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Tuesday that the Trump administration “could be creating thousands of immigrant orphans in the U.S.” with its new policy of systematically separating migrant families at the border, NBC News reported.

“I can tell you from experience that it’s more difficult than it sounds,” former ICE Acting Director John Sandweg, who led the agency from 2013 to 2014, told MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. “The parents end up on one track, the child ends up on another track.”

“If they don’t reunite these kids with their parents right away, what can happen is the kids will be stuck here in the United States for years. Guardians will be appointed. And the parent will be down in Honduras or Guatemala with no idea where their child is and no meaningful way to reunite.”

In April, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a “zero tolerance” prosecution policy for people apprehended at the border, including families. As a result, parents are charged criminally and transferred to the custody of U.S. marshals while their children are transferred to the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Refugee Resettlement.

By now there are several anecdotal examples of families who have been unable to reunite following their separation as a result of the Trump administration’s policy.

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for jsfox jsfox says:

    So wait let me get this straight. Trump with this act of evil and cruelty is actually creating more undocumented immigrants in the US?

  2. Never in my wildest dreams…nightmares.

  3. Former ICE Head Mueller: Trump Admin’s Family Separations Could Will Be Permanent

    That’s more like it!!

  4. "Trump Admin’s Family Separations Could Be Permanent.”

    Today’s GOP: The Party of Family Values™.

    May the “white evangelicals” who defecated Trump on America burn in hell.

  5. “I can tell you from experience that it’s more difficult than it sounds”

    Who ever thought it sounded easy?!!

    I guarantee that from Trump and Miller on down, the problem of eventually re-uniting families was something they just did not care about. This policy is about inflicting pain, and being seen to inflict pain.

    THIS is a Republican’s idea of toughness.

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