Although both the Obama and Trump administrations operated/operate under the same immigration laws, the family separations were because of Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy.
Verification of facts about Trump's family separation policy
AP Explores Immigration Laws And Policies Under Obama And Trump
AP FACT CHECK: Obama didn't have family separation policy
By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is falsely asserting that the federal policy that split migrant families at the border was practiced by his predecessor, Barack Obama, as well.
The Obama and Trump administrations operated under the same immigration laws but the "zero tolerance" policy that drove children from their parents was Trump's.
TRUMP: "Obama had a separation policy; we all had the same policy. I tried to do it differently, but Obama had a separation policy. But people don't like to talk about that." — remarks to reporters Monday.
TRUMP: "@60Minutes did a phony story about child separation when they know we had the exact same policy as the Obama Administration. In fact a picture of children in jails was used by other Fake Media to show how bad (cruel) we are, but it was in 2014 during O years. Obama separated ... children from parents, as did Bush etc., because that is the policy and law. I tried to keep them together but the problem is, when you do that, vast numbers of additional people storm the Border. So with Obama seperation is fine, but with Trump it's not. Fake 60 Minutes!" — tweets Sunday.
THE FACTS: Obama did not have a separation policy. The Trump administration didn't, explicitly, either, but that was the effect of zero tolerance, which meant that anyone caught crossing the border illegally was to be criminally prosecuted, even if they had few or no previous offences.
The policy meant adults were taken to court for criminal proceedings and their children were separated. In most cases, if the charge took longer than 72 hours to process, which is the longest time that children can be held by Customs and Border Protection, children were sent into the care of the Health and Human Services Department. Zero tolerance remains in effect, but Trump signed an executive order June 20 that stopped separations.
The president is correct, however, in saying that photos of children in holding cells were misrepresented online as showing the effects of Trump's immigration policy.
The photos, taken by The Associated Press, were from 2014, during the Obama administration, and showed children who came to the border without their parents and were being housed at a Customs and Border Protection center in Nogales, Arizona. The photos were identified as such but wrongly described online as illustrating imprisonment under Trump. Various activists expressed horror about the scene until it was pointed out that Trump had nothing to do with it.
Did obama separate families at the border
President Trump has blamed Mr Obama and Democrats for the policy. Last year he called on Democrats to "end the horrible law that separates children (from) their parents once they cross the border in the US". However, there has been no law that mandates separating children from parents who cross the border illegally.
´´ did obama separate children from their parents at the border ´´
So if you think that Obama separated from his parents' children at the border, you may be wrong.
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Associated Press writer Colleen Long contributed to this report.
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Related questions:
Did Obama separate the families at the border?
According to an AP Fact Check article by Calvin Woodward, “Obama did not have a separation policy. The Trump administration didn't, explicitly, either, but that was the effect of zero tolerance, which meant that anyone caught crossing the border illegally was to be criminally prosecuted, even if they had few or no previous offences. The policy meant adults were taken to court for criminal proceedings and their children were separated. In most cases, if the charge took longer than 72 hours to process, which is the longest time that children can be held by Customs and Border Protection, children were sent into the care of the Health and Human Services Department.” Read Woodward’s full article here: https://www.hispanicoutlook.com/articles/family-separation-policy
What is the policy on family separation?
In May 2018, The Hispanic Outlook ran an AP Fact Check article on its website that stated, “Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently announced a ‘zero tolerance’ policy for illegal entries, pledging to criminally prosecute people with few or no previous offenses. If parents are jailed, they are separated from children who joined them under protocols described in the 2008 law. Administration officials have acknowledged that about 700 children have been separated from their parents since October. That figure is certain to increase once the zero-tolerance policy takes hold…” To read the full article, visit https://www.hispanicoutlook.com/articles/ap-fact-check-trump-misplaces-blame-family-splits-
Did Obama start the family separation?
Garance Burke and Martha Mendoza wrote in their AP article, “Barack Obama’s head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection Gil Kerlikowski said the difference between now and five years ago was how quickly the government reunited kids with their families or other sponsors. Under Trump, the numbers of detained children grew in part due to new, strict requirements to screen every adult in a potential home, which significantly slowed reunifications until the policy ended late last year.” To read the full article, visit https://www.hispanicoutlook.com/articles/children-detention-privatized
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