Donald Trump signs order to end migrant family separations, caving in to huge political pressure
Trump’s executive order to instead detain children and parents together until they are dealt with by the courts will likely open new legal battles
US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday that reversed his decision to separate migrant families crossing the border from Mexico, following a global outcry.
“It’s about keeping families together,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated.”
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But he added that the policy “continues to be a zero tolerance … We have zero tolerance for people that enter our country illegally.”
The order directs US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to detain families together when they are apprehended after crossing the border and allows them to be housed on military bases indefinitely.
But the directive may violate a 2008 law that require special handling of migrant children who must be transferred from Nielsen’s department to the Department of Health and Human Services after 72 hours.
And it is likely to open a new legal battle - under the terms of a 1997 court agreement known as the Flores settlement, the federal government agreed to hold immigrant minors no longer than 20 days. Immigration cases typically take much longer than that.