Trump administration family separation policy

[18] 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.

[25][26] The New York Times reported that, on January 20, 2025: The Trump administration revoked a Biden executive order that created a task force to reunify families separated at the southern border.

"[42]: 3–4 [39] In 2005, President George W. Bush launched Operation Streamline, a "zero-tolerance"[43] program targeting a stretch of the U.S.–Mexico border that referred unlawful entrants for criminal prosecution and expedited their deportation.

[55][56] After taking office in January 2017, Trump demoted Daniel Ragsdale as director of ICE and replaced him with Thomas Homan, who had long advocated for the separation of children from their families as a means of deterring illegal immigration.

[57][58][44][59][60] NBC News reported that officials in attendance of a meeting of senior advisers said that "Miller warned that not enforcing the administration's zero tolerance immigration policy 'is the end of our country as we know it' and that opposing it would be un-American.

[62][63] In March 2017, it was first reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was considering a proposal to separate parents from their children if they were caught attempting to cross the border into the United States.

the director of the National Immigration Law Center said that the policy, if implemented, would amount "to state-sanctioned violence against children, against families that are coming to the United States to seek safety" and that the administration did not act with transparency in explaining what was being proposed.

[2][79]Multiple media accounts, as well as direct testimony from detained migrants to members of Congress, reported that immigrant families lawfully presenting themselves at ports of entry seeking asylum were also being separated.

[101][102] In this context, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders explained that the government was "out of resources" and could not hold all the undocumented families coming across the US-Mexico border.

Jonathan White, who oversaw the care of minors for HHS, testified that neither he nor any other career person in the department's Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) had been informed of the new Trump policy and if they had they would not have supported it.

[132][133] In addition, this complaint documents ICDC's disregard for public health guidelines set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by maintaining unsanitary conditions and punishing immigrants with solitary confinement when they speak out against these injustices.

[136] Democratic Representative Rosa DeLauro, who chairs the House subcommittee that oversees HHS appropriations, said in a statement that the two reports were proof that Trump's family separation policy "was state-sanctioned child abuse".

A case study of 91 U.S. born citizens ages 6 to 12, using the UCLA Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Reaction Index and found that "29% of all child participants met criteria for full (19%) or partial (10%) PTSD diagnoses".

[185] In October 2018, USA Today reported that the number of federal drug-trafficking prosecutions on the Southern border plummeted, as prosecutorial resources were diverted to the family separation policy.

The Texas Tribune reported that detained children who had previously been held at the Shiloh Treatment Center said they had been forcibly treated with antipsychotic drugs by the facility personnel, based on legal filings from a class action lawsuit.

[195][196][197][198][199] On July 30, 2018, a federal judge ruled that government officials have been in violation of state child welfare laws when giving psychotropic drugs to migrant children without first seeking the consent of their parents or guardians.

[203] In June 2018, the ACLU filed a class-action lawsuit against the federal government on behalf of two mothers (one from Brazil, one from Democratic Republic of the Congo) who had been separated from their children, seeking a halt to the policy.

[209] Charging the Trump Administration with initiating new government screening policies designed to bar immigrants from entering the country by preventing them from getting a fair hearing, on August 7, 2018, the ACLU filed a lawsuit which focuses on migrants who have been placed in fast-track deportation proceedings known as "expedited removal".

According to the complaint, "the trauma of separation and detention creates an environment that is by its very nature coercive and makes it extremely difficult for parents to participate in legal proceedings affecting their rights".

It is one of a small number of similar court challenges, with demands such as the immediate release of the child, an order prohibiting US authorities from separating the family, and money for damages of pain and suffering.

[26] The Trump administration did not supply the steering committee with phone numbers for deported parents for several months, and it was another year before the HHS inspector general provided the names of 1,500 additional families that had been separated.

[22][256] One month after taking office in January 2021, President Biden signed an executive order establishing a family reunification task force within the government to work with the ACLU steering committee.

[288] Forty Democratic United States Senators sent a letter to Trump urging him to "rescind this unethical, ineffective, and inhumane policy and instead prioritize approaches that align with our humanitarian and American values".

[297] Cruz said his bill would end the separation policy by authorizing the construction of shelters to house families, expedite asylum cases, and increase the number of federal immigration judges.

[297][298] Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer criticized Cruz's proposal, arguing that the Republicans would include "unacceptable additions" and instead urged Trump to end the policy using an executive order.

[303] United Nations special rapporteurs from the Human Rights Council have also condemned the policy, and have stated that detention of children "is punitive, severely hampers their development, and in some cases may amount to torture".

"[320] Inspired by a viral photo of a crying two-year-old girl looking up at her mother, on June 16, 2018, a California couple started a fund-raising campaign on Facebook named "Reunite an immigrant parent with their child" with a goal of raising $1,500.

This has caused many in Trump's administration to rally against "fake news" with White House Spokeswoman Sarah Sanders tweeting that the Democrats and media "exploited this photo of a little girl to push their own agenda".

[340] Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade defended Trump's family separation policy, arguing that migrant children are being treated as though they are more important than "people in our country who pay taxes and have needs as well".

[352][353][354] During a June 18, 2018, White House press conference, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen contended that during the first five months of fiscal 2018, there was a "314% increase in adults showing up with kids [posing as] a family unit.