World Immigration News

"We Need to Take Away Children" Zero Accountability Six Years After "Zero Tolerance"

Release Date: 2024-12-16
Media: Human Rights Watch
Summary: In late 2017, public defenders along the U.S.-Mexico border began noticing a troubling trend: more people facing criminal charges for irregular border crossing were primarily concerned about the whereabouts of their children, not the prosecution itself. This marked the early stages of the Trump administration's family separation policy, which began as a pilot program in March 2017 in El Paso, Texas, and expanded nationwide in 2018.

The policy used a minor federal charge—“improper entry”—to separate parents from their children. It was part of the "Zero Tolerance" approach, directed by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, which mandated the prosecution of all adults entering the U.S. irregularly. Before this, such charges were rarely pursued against parents with children to avoid family separation.

Under the new policy, parents were quickly convicted and sent to detention, while their children were treated as "unaccompanied minors" and transferred to the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) for care, despite authorities knowing where the parents were. The policy exploited legal protections for unaccompanied minors, but without proper measures in place to reunite families.

Discussions about family separation began shortly after President Trump's inauguration, with internal concerns raised about the potential consequences of such a policy. Despite these concerns, the family separation policy was implemented, leading to long-term family separations and significant human rights issues.
Tags: United States of America

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