Inspector General report on the Zero Tolerance Policy

[6] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights called for the Trump administration to "immediately halt" its policy of separating children from their parents,[7][8] and human rights activists have criticized that the policy, insofar as it is also applied to asylum seekers, defies Article 31 of the Refugee Convention.

[9] Despite previously asserting that "You can't [reverse the policy] through an executive order",[10] on June 20, 2018, Trump bowed to intense political pressure and signed an executive order to reverse the policy[11] while still maintaining "zero tolerance" border control by detaining entire families together.

However, with the release of emails obtained by NBC News in 2019 it was discovered that there was no central database and the government had only enough information to reconnect 60 children with their parents.

"[18] The DOJ also didn't plan for the operational, resource, and management impacts that a "substantial increase in immigration prosecutions resulting from the zero tolerance policy" would have on the USMS, the USAOs, and the Federal Courts.

[18] The findings led Rod Rosenstein, who had been Trump's Attorney General at the time the policy was enforced, to admit that family separations "should never have been implemented".