March 29, 2024
Trump reversal won’t end ‘zero tolerance’
WASHINGTON--President Trump signed an order Wednesday ending the separation of families at the border, moving to end a crisis that engulfed his administration and threatened to derail his hopes of progress on broader immigration reforms.

Mr. Trump insisted the changes don’t end his zero tolerance policy, and illegal immigrants who jump the border will still be charged with crimes. Indeed, with the president’s signature the zero tolerance policy was elevated to the level of an executive order.

But those arrests jumping the border with children will be held together in immigration detention facilities, rather than separated as the parents head to criminal justice system jails.

“What we have done today is we are keeping families together. The borders are just as tough, just as strong,” Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office.

He told other agencies to search for space they might offer Homeland Security to use as detention facilities, anticipating what’s likely to be a massive influx of people who will need to be held.

And Mr. Trump ordered Attorney General Jeff Sessions to file a request to modify the court agreement that the administration says forces family separations. That agreement, the so-called Flores Settlement, requires illegal immigrant children to be quickly released from government custody, and that means their parents are usually released with them.

The administration says that’s created the family loophole that spurred the new surge of illegal immigration, with adults knowing if they show up at the border with children they can get more lenient treatment.

Signing the order marked a major retreat for the president, who for the last week had blamed Democrats for the separations and said it would take a change in law to stop it.

Mr. Trump on Wednesday talked about the “dilemma” he said he faced.

He said if he was “really, really pathetically weak,” the country would be “overrun” by illegal immigrants. But “if you’re strong then you don’t have any heart.”

“Perhaps I’d rather be strong, but that’s a tough dilemma,” the president said.

The crux of the zero tolerance policy is using the criminal code to try to deter illegal immigration. For decades, it’s been a crime to jump the border, though past administrations used those provisions only sparingly.

The Trump administration has said it wants nearly 100 percent prosecutions.

Currently those charged with crimes are supposed to be held by the Justice Department, whose jails are not equipped for family custody. Homeland Security does have some family detention facilities, but they are used for people in the immigration system, not the criminal justice system.

House Republicans’ new immigration bill, expected to be voted on Thursday, includes a provision that would write into law the ability for the government to keep migrants in criminal proceedings in Homeland Security facilities.

The House bill would only apply to parents charged with misdemeanors. Those with felony charges, such as smuggling or reentering the country after a previous deportation, would still go to the Justice Department under the House plan.
Keeping families together in Homeland Security detention will likely require an infusion of cash to create more family detention space. (Source: The Washington Times)
Story Date: June 21, 2018
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