Migrant Family Separations Haven’t Stopped Despite Rollback of Policy

The latest data reported to the federal judge monitoring one of the most controversial of President Trump’s immigration policies shows that 245 children have been newly removed from their families since the court ordered the government to halt routine separations under last spring’s “zero-tolerance” border enforcement policy. Some of the new separations are being undertaken with no clear documentation to help track the children’s whereabouts.

Images of crying mothers and children at the border last year prompted an intense backlash across party lines, with all four living former first ladies and Melania Trump expressing horror at the policy. But despite President Trump’s June 20 executive order rescinding it, the practice was never completely suspended.

Under the original policy, most children were removed because parents who illegally crossed the border were subject to criminal prosecution. The recent separations have occurred largely because parents have been flagged for fraud, a communicable disease or past criminal history — in some cases relatively minor violations, years in the past, that ordinarily would not lead to the loss of parental custody.