[5][6] Rather, the phrase refers to a "collection of policies, court precedents, executive actions and federal statutes spanning more than 20 years, cobbled together throughout Democratic and Republican administrations.
"[2] The Trump administration has used the phrase as a catch-all term for laws or policies preventing the holding of apprehended migrants in immigration detention.
[8][9][10] In testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee in October 2005, Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said that the DHS would "Return every single illegal entrant – no exceptions.
[12] In August 2006, Chertoff said that the "'catch-and-release' practice that for years helped many illegal immigrants stay in the United States unhindered" had ended and that DHS detained 99% of apprehended non-Mexican border-crossers.
[3] Democratic U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar said that the directive was "more show, more salesmanship, than anything else" since congressional approval would be needed to pay for expanding detention capabilities.
[20][21] Under a 1997 settlement agreement and consent decree, the children of detained parents charged with immigration violations could not be held in immigration detention for more than 20 days, and a 2016 ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case Flores v. Lynch upheld this requirement while saying that this did not that imply that the adults accompanying such children must be released.
[24] On June 20, 2018, Trump bowed to intense political pressure and signed an executive order to reverse the policy[25] while still maintaining "zero tolerance" border control by detaining entire families together.
[29] On July 2, 2019, the Western District Court of Washington issued a class-wide ruling to require bond hearings for noncitizens who have showed a credible fear of persecution in their home country and are currently held separate from their families.