US Immigrant Family Separation Crisis (2018)

    Place: United States

    Summary

    The US immigrant family separation crisis was a political controversy in the United States resulting from the separation of immigrant parents and children by border control authorities, as part of the “zero-tolerance” policy on illegal immigration adopted by the administration of President Donald Trump.

    Key Events

    • March 7, 2017 —Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly confirms that the administration is considering separating children from parents at the border.
    • April 20, 2018 —The New York Times publishes a report indicating that more than seven hundred children had been taken from their parents by immigration authorities, and that the separations began in October 2017.
    • June 15, 2018 —Department of Homeland Security reports that two thousand children were separated from their parents between April and May.
    • June 20, 2018 —Trump signs an executive order to keep migrant families together at the US-Mexico border.
    • June 26, 2018 —A federal judge orders the government to reunite children with their families within thirty days.
    • January 26, 2021 —Newly elected President Joe Biden rescinds Trump’s migrant family separation policy.

    Status

    In August 2018, according to the Washington Post, 497 migrant children remained separated from their families, and 2,157 had been reunited or released. Between June and late August, the Trump administration had successfully reunited 81 percent of the children separated from their parents, though the administration missed three separate deadlines for complete reunification after the June 26 ruling forcing immigration authorities to begin the process. As of 2023, an estimated 180 children remained separated from their parents.

    On August 2, Trump administration attorneys filed court documents proposing that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the plaintiffs in the case against the government, be responsible for locating the families of separated children and determining if they wish to be reunited. ACLU lawyers said the organization would do what it could, but that the ultimate responsibility for reuniting families rests with the federal government.

    In 2023, the administration of President Biden, who defeated Trump in the 2020 election, settled the ACLU lawsuit against the Trump administration. Under the settlement, which did not contain any monetary compensation, the federal government would not be able to reintroduce a family-separation policy for a period of eight years.

    In-Depth Overview

    Pursuing a hardline approach to dealing with illegal immigration in the United States, the Trump administration’s Department of Homeland Security began as early as March 2017 considering a plan to separate illegal immigrants and their children when detained at the border. The plan was intended to deter illegal immigration by eliminating the previous “catch and release” policy, under which parents with children would be apprehended, assigned a future court date, and then released into the country, oftentimes never returning to court. Child separation was later found to have begun no later than October 2017; a host of immigrant advocacy organizations began filing complaints with the Department of Homeland Security in December.

    Family separations increased in frequency after Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new “zero-tolerance” policy in April in which immigration authorities were instructed to prosecute all instances of illegal border crossing. This policy intensified separations because of rules prohibiting confining children with adults in detention facilities. On April 20, the New York Times broke the story on the Trump administration’s policies of child separation, citing data showing that more than seven hundred children had been separated from their parents since October 2017 and that more than one hundred of these children were under the age of four. This prompted a public backlash against the Trump administration, with both Sessions and Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen defending the policy in interviews as a matter of upholding national law. In May, former Homeland Security secretary John Kelly, who had transitioned to the job of White House chief of staff, argued that the intention of the policy was to deter illegal immigration.

    On June 15, the Department of Homeland Security issued a statement admitting that nearly two thousand children had been separated from their parents as part of the zero-tolerance policy instituted in April. Increased media coverage brought additional criticism on the Trump administration, with an increasing number of politicians criticizing the administration’s approach. Although Trump initially answered critics by claiming that he was unable to change the laws being used to separate families, on June 20, he signed an executive order to stop the separations, with Homeland Security reporting that, to that point, 2,342 children had been separated from their parents from early May to early June.

    On June 26, Judge Dana Sabraw of the US District Court for the Southern District of California issued an order for immigration authorities to reunite all separated children with their parents within thirty days and also stated that children under the age of five must be reunited with their parents within fourteen days. The government failed to meet the court deadline, having only managed to reunite 38 of the 102 children under the age of five by July 10. The administration was then given a second deadline and also failed to meet that, with only 43 percent reunited by July 26. On August 10, the Trump administration suffered another loss when Judge Sabraw issued a further ruling blocking the Trump administration from deporting immigrant families that had been reunited until each individual had been provided their right to apply for political asylum in the United States on behalf of the formerly detained children. Press reports indicated that some migrants felt they had been coerced into surrendering their right to seek asylum under the threat of remaining separated from their children.

    Key Figures

    John Kelly: White House chief of staff and former secretary of Homeland Security.

    Kirstjen Nielsen: Secretary of Homeland Security.

    Jeff Sessions: Attorney general of the United States.

    Donald Trump: President of the United States.

    Bibliography

    Ainsley, J., and Soboroff, J. (2021, January 26). Biden Justice Department Officially Rescinds Trump ‘Zero Tolerance’ Migrant Family Separation Policy. NBC News. Retrieved May 3, 2024, from www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/biden-justice-department-officially-rescinds-trump-zero-tolerance-migrant-family-n1255762

    Cillizza, C. (2017, June 18). The remarkable history of the family separation crisis. CNN . Retrieved May 3, 2024, from www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/donald-trump-immigration-policies-q-and-a/index.html

    Lind, D. (2018, August 17). Judge blocks Trump from deporting reunited families. Vox . Retrieved May 3, 2024, from www.vox.com/2018/8/17/17714918/children-separated-parents-deport-asylum

    Montoya-Galvez, C. (2023, December 9). Judge Approves Settlement Barring U.S. Border Officials from Reviving Family Separation Policy for 8 Years. CBS News. Retrieved May 3, 2024, from www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-era-family-migrant-separation-policy-barred-under-settlement-approved-california-judge/

    Schmidt, S. (2018, August 3). Trump administration puts burden on ACLU to find deported parents separated from children. The Washington Post . Retrieved May 3, 2024, from www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/08/03/trump-administration-puts-burden-on-aclu-to-find-deported-parents-separated-from-children/

    Shapiro, L., & Sharma, M. (2018, August 30). How many migrant children are still separated from their families? The Washington Post . Retrieved May 3, 2024, from www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/local/tracking-migrant-family-separation/