Why Donald Trump wants to separate immigrant children from their parents
Trump has defended his administration's border-protection policies in the face of rising national outrage
US President Donald Trump declared that the US will not become a “migrant camp” as his administration faced a backlash for its practice of separating the children of illegal immigrants from their parents.
While the Department of Homeland Security says it has no policy to separate families, such cases have skyrocketed since the administration began systematically arresting migrants for illegally crossing the border – and separating children from their incarcerated parents.
Here is a look at the key facts and figures behind the crisis:
600,000 asylum claims
Despite efforts to stifle it, illegal immigration into the United States remains at high levels.
From March to May this year, more than 50,000 people a month were apprehended for illegally crossing the border from Mexico. About 15 per cent of those are arriving as families, and eight per cent as unaccompanied children.
Mexican nationals can be pushed back into their country, but an increasing number are from violence-plagued countries of Central America – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. They are harder to send back.
Many, including almost all of the families and unaccompanied children arriving, request asylum, claiming a “credible fear” of persecution or torture if they return to their country.