President Trump praised Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen for explaining how families attempting to enter the U.S. between ports of entry are being separated, amid widespread backlash to the Trump administration’s new zero tolerance policy to prosecute all illegal immigrants.
“Homeland Security @SecNielsen did a fabulous job yesterday at the press conference explaining security at the border and for our country, while at the same time recommending changes to obsolete & nasty laws, which force family separation,” Trump tweeted Tuesday evening. “We want ‘heart’ and security in America!”
Homeland Security @SecNielsen did a fabulous job yesterday at the press conference explaining security at the border and for our country, while at the same time recommending changes to obsolete & nasty laws, which force family separation. We want “heart” and security in America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 20, 2018
Nielsen told reporters during the press conference that the Trump administration wasn’t the only administration to separate children from adults.
“The Obama administration, the Bush administration all separated families,” Nielsen told reporters Monday evening. “They absolutely did. Their rate was less than ours but they absolutely did do this. This is not new.”
In the past, families were only separated if a parent-child relationship could not be verified and if a child was at risk with the adult. In addition to these requirements, all adults now who illegally come to the U.S. between ports of entry instead of a border checkpoint are split from their children.
“This entire crisis, just to be clear, is not new,” Nielsen continued Monday. “Currently, it is the exclusive product of loopholes in our federal immigration laws that prevent illegal immigrant minors and family members from being detained and removed to their home countries.”
“Congress and the courts created this system, and Congress alone can fix it,” she added.
On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that nearly 2,000 minors were separated from accompanying adults between ports of entry at the border between April 19 and May 31 after the zero tolerance policy took effect. Additionally, the agency told reporters Tuesday that more than 2,300 children were separated from their families between May 5 and June 9.
[Also read: Trump administration could be holding 30,000 border kids by August, officials say]
Minors who are split from their families as a result of the zero tolerance policy will be housed by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Trump’s comments come after he encouraged House Republicans Tuesday evening to approve one of the two GOP immigration reform bills that will be voted on later this week. He also encouraged Congress to make a legislative change so children can remain with their families.
