WASHINGTON — WASHINGTON -- Almost 2,000 children have been separated from their parents at the southern border in six weeks, according to new figures released by the Department of Homeland Security Friday.
The reason for the escalation in separations is simple – authorities are now sending immigrant parents to jail, after they illegally cross the border.
Children are not seen as at fault for the border crossings, so they are placed into controversial shelters until they can be released.
An existing law and court precedent mandates that children who are detained at the border must eventually be set free, which is why parents and children are now kept separately.
The two groups have two different trajectories – parents will face the law and criminal charges, while their children will eventually be released.
Adults in the past were referred to civil deportation proceedings, which do not require jail time. Now, in an effort to reduce illegal crossings, the Justice Department announced in April it will bring criminal charges against parents.
“What we need to see is the rule of law to continue to be enforced, and that’s currently what we’ve been doing,” said Helen Aguirre-Ferre, special assistant to the president and White House director of media affairs.
“We want families to be able to come here, legally, and not imperiled, illegally.”
In an unprecedented press conference before nearly all television cameras on the White House North Lawn, President Trump blamed legislation passed by Democratic members of Congress for the rise in family separations.
“The Democrats have to change their law,” Mr. Trump said Friday. “The Democrats forced that law upon our nation. I hate it. I hate to see separation of parents and children.”
But no law requires family separation.
Instead, the Justice Department’s new “zero tolerance” policy, combined with federal protections for minors, lead to children and parents facing different fates.
A Democratic administration did indeed strike the first relevant legal precedent concerning the now 2,000 separated children, an agreement made during the Clinton White House in 1997.
The “Flores settlement” as it’s known, requires the government to release children from federal custody and into the care of a relative, guardian, or the “least restrictive” setting.
Ms. Aguirre-Ferre cited the settlement as Democratic policy contributing to the current situation.
“When you have the Flores amendment, and that is the judicial agreement that comes as a result, that becomes the law,” Ms. Aguirre-Ferre said. “Because it’s the court that’s independent, that’s establishing what the parameters of the law are.
A law signed by President George W. Bush also keeps immigrant children from facing criminal charges.
Members of Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act with strong bipartisan support in 2008. It helps victims of human trafficking and states that unaccompanied minors “are exempt from prompt return to their home country.”
