After intense public uproar over the impact of the administration's “zero-tolerance” immigration policy, Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that he said would end separation of migrant families at the U.S. border. According to the New York Times, the order will detain families together indefinitely.
The plan, as the Washington Post reports, would be to keep families together in federal custody as they await to be prosecuted for crossing the border illegally. Though, Trump's new plan would potentially violate a 1997 decree, known as the Flores settlement agreement, which limited the duration of child detentions. The federal law essentially bars the government from keeping children in immigration detention centers for more than 20 days.
“We have to be very strong on the border but at the same time we want to be very compassionate,” Trump said, later adding during his pre-signing address. "I didn't like the sight or the feeling of families being separated. It's a problem that's gone on for many years, as you know... and we are dealing with it."
The Fake News is not mentioning the safety and security of our Country when talking about illegal immigration. Our immigration laws are the weakest and worst anywhere in the world, and the Dems will do anything not to change them & to obstruct-want open borders which means crime!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2018
It’s the Democrats fault, they won’t give us the votes needed to pass good immigration legislation. They want open borders, which breeds horrible crime. Republicans want security. But I am working on something - it never ends!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2018
The current policy has resulted in the separation of 2,300 migrant children from their parents as they are detained. According to the Post, the Department of Justice can’t prosecute children along with their parents. With the zero-tolerance policy there has been a sharp increase in children being detained in centers separately. Stories and images of children housed in cages and in tears, and parents devastated has caused public outrage and many Americans have been calling the practice inhumane and cruel.
Regardless, Trump and his administration remained adamant on their decision, insisting that congressional action was necessary. It wasn’t until House Republican leaders decided to bring the border immigration legislation up for a vote that Trump reversed his course, according to the Washington Post.
Just because Trump's going to reverse his policy doesn’t mean that we can forget it happened. If you care at all about immigrant children and how they were treated by the Trump admin, you need to show it in the midterms this November.
— Denizcan Grimes (@MrFilmkritik) June 20, 2018
Even though the order is set to keep families together, it is unclear how Trump will be able to justify his legal authority to violate the necessary rules on how to properly handle migrant children in these detention centers.
According to the New York Times, families would have to remain in ICE detention centers, but under the Flores settlement children are also supposed to be place in a least-restrictive place. In most cases, the 20-day rule is not enough time for families to go through immigration court. Before, Business Insider reports, families were released by ICE together with some form of electronic monitoring, but that all changed with the zero-tolerance policy.
Trump said to be "backing down" this afternoon, but his climbdown is from child-parent separation to indefinite detention of entire immigrant families. And it is not clear how the thousands of migrants (some already deported) who had their children taken will get them back. https://t.co/vLlPJHCU7E
— Joy Reid (@JoyAnnReid) June 20, 2018
As of right now, Trump will have to go through courts in order to go against the Flores settlement. It is also unclear what will happen to the families who have already been separated and what the plans for reuniting parents and their children will be.
