Even As Trump Dismisses Possibility Of Restarting Family Separations, President Touts The Effectiveness Of The Policy
“We’re not looking to do that,” President Donald Trump said. “Once you don’t have it, that’s why you see many more people coming. They’re coming like it’s a picnic, because let’s go to Disneyland.” The possibility of the return of family separations, a policy that received fierce blow back from both lawmakers and the public, came amid 12 days of turmoil in the White House over immigration and the Department of Homeland Security. Media organizations pull back the curtain to offer a glimpse behind the scenes. Meanwhile Trump continues to say that the Obama administration was responsible for separating families and that he put a stop to it, but fact checkers show this claim to be false.
The Associated Press:
Trump Suggests Family Separation Policy Deters Migrants
Facing bipartisan pushback to his immigration shake-up, President Donald Trump said he’s not looking to revive the much-criticized practice of separating migrant children from their families at the southern border. At the same time, he suggested the policy had worked to deter migrants from coming into the U.S., although he offered no evidence to support his position. Last summer the administration separated more than 2,500 children from their families before international outrage forced Trump to halt the practice and a judge ordered them reunited. (Long and Colvin, 4/10)
The Washington Post:
Inside The Trump White House’s Growing Panic To Contain The Border Crisis
Trump’s increasingly erratic behavior over the past 12 days — since he first threatened to seal the border in a series of tweets on March 29 — has alarmed top Republicans, business officials and foreign leaders who fear that his emotional response might exacerbate problems at the border, harm the U.S. economy and degrade national security. The stretch also has revealed that a president who has routinely blamed spiking immigration numbers on others — past presidents, congressional Democrats, Mexican authorities, federal judges, human smugglers — is now coming to the realization that the problems are closer to home. Though his aides have taken the fall, and it is unlikely that Trump will blame himself, the president is facing an existential political crisis ahead of his 2020 reelection bid over the prospect of failure on his top domestic priority. (Nakamura, Dawsey and Kim, 4/9)
The Washington Post:
Trump Administration Considers Revised Version Of Family Separation Tactic
Administration officials said Tuesday that while a return to the previous family separation tactic, known as “zero tolerance,” is not in the works, the White House is considering a “binary choice” policy, which would give parents the option of remaining in detention with their children or allowing their children to be separated and placed with another caregiver. (Miroff, Dawsey and Bade, 4/9)
The Associated Press:
Inside 12 Days Of Turmoil That Shook Homeland Security
President Donald Trump had had it. The flow of migrants at the southern border was surging. Another caravan appeared to be forming. And his government had run out of holding space, forcing the release of tens of thousands of families apprehended at the border. During a meeting with senior aides on the last Thursday in March, Trump demanded drastic action to make good on the threat he’d tweeted that morning: Shut the southern border. Curbing illegal immigration was his signature issue, he railed. Why couldn’t he deliver? (Colvin and Long, 4/9)
The Associated Press Fact Check:
Trump Mocks Migrants, Retreats On Health Care
Playing migrants for laughs in a speech to lobbyists and donors, President Donald Trump characterized people trying to get into the U.S. as a horde of beefy men who fake hard-luck stories so softies in the immigration system will let them in. His shtick caused plenty of amusement at the Republican Jewish Coalition event Saturday but it was a far cry from the reality of the masses at the border. (Woodward and Yen, 4/9)
The Washington Post Fact Checker:
Trump Digs In On False Claim That He Stopped Obama’s Family Separation Policy
The Obama administration rejected a plan for family separations, according to Cecilia Muñoz, Obama’s top adviser for immigration. The Trump administration operated a pilot program for family separations in the El Paso area beginning in mid-2017. In April 2018, the pilot took off. Then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions rolled out a “zero tolerance” policy of prosecuting all adults caught crossing the border illegally. The next month, the Department of Homeland Security began to refer all illegal-crossing cases to federal prosecutors. (Rizzo, 4/10)
The Associated Press:
Autopsy: Migrant Detainee Died From AIDS Complications
A Honduran transgender migrant, whose 2018 death while in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sparked protests and calls for an investigation, died of a rare disorder that developed quickly due to AIDS, according to an autopsy released Tuesday. The New Mexico Office of the Medical Investigator released its findings on the death of Roxsana Hernandez , 33, saying the disorder — known as multicentric Castleman disease — can progress rapidly in people with weakened immune systems and lead to death within weeks. (Contreras, 4/9)
CQ:
Family Separations At Border Opposed By HHS Official
A Department of Health and Human Services official told senators Tuesday that he would not support reinstating the "zero tolerance" policy that led to thousands of children being separated from their migrant parents at the southern border in 2018. “I would never support the use of family separation and the systematic traumatization of children as a tool for immigration policy,” Commander Jonathan D. White of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, a branch of the Department of Health and Human Services, told senators. White is deputy director for children's programs in the Office of Emergency Management and Medical Operations under the assistant Homeland Security secretary for preparedness and response. (DeChalus, 4/9)
