The Department of Homeland Security this week left several key logistical questions unanswered related to how it will implement President Trump’s Wednesday executive order aimed at stopping illegal immigrant families from being separated.
DHS headquarters and agency spokesmen went silent Thursday as the department’s leadership grappled with how to implement a plan it helped the White House write a day earlier. One department official who asked to remain anonymous acknowledged to the Washington Examiner Thursday night there was little being said publicly about how it would go about implementing the change because press officers department-wide were told not to speak with reporters.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the DHS agency tasked with separating border children from parents who are referred for prosecution for illegal entry, was the only homeland security entity on Thursday to release a statement about its response to the executive action.
CBP’s six-sentence press release said the agency had “taken immediate steps to implement” Trump’s order, and said generally it would keep families together in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities while the adults are prosecuted for entering the U.S. illegally.
But several questions remained, including how the Trump administration will go about trying to revisit a court settlement that prevents the government from holding illegal immigrant children for more than 20 days before releasing them. That settlement is what forces the government to separate families when the government is prosecuting their illegal immigrant parents.
Peter Boogaard, who worked in the DHS press office during the 2014 unaccompanied minor crisis under former President Barack Obama, said his first concern following the executive order was the lack of information the Trump administration shared about how it will challenge the Flores settlement decision, and how quickly it will be able to get what it wants.
“My first question was if the administration is ending the supposed separation of families — if they’re still going to maintain a zero tolerance policy, which would require being able to hold them more than 20 days,” Boogaard said. “It seems unlikely that they will get the emergency injunction on that determination, because they will not be able to comply with the executive order and the law if they aren’t able to change the interpretation of the Flores Settlement.”
A back-up plan to house family units, in case a judge rejects the administration’s request, was also not shared by DHS.
There are also several questions related to how ICE, which was tasked in the order with housing family units, will do so.
In the executive order, Trump said the Defense Department will take “all legally available measures to provide to the [DHS] Secretary, upon request, any existing facilities available for the housing and care of alien families, and shall construct such facilities if necessary and consistent with law. The Secretary, to the extent permitted by law, shall be responsible for reimbursement for the use of these facilities.”
But on Thursday, the Pentagon told the Washington Examiner it was not aware of any plan to house minors. By Friday morning, it confirmed an HHS request to house unaccompanied minors, which are separate from the families related to Trump’s order.
John Sandweg, who served as interim director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, between John Morton and Sarah Saldana’s tenures during the Obama administration, said the lack of details indicated a deeper issue within DHS leadership and the Trump administration.
“All of this just shows you, setting aside how ridiculous the policy is and why it’s not going to be a deterrent and why the policy is cruel, there’s a lack of competence in the way things are being done,” Sandweg told the Washington Examiner. “It’s not a failure of a communications plan. The lack of clarity is derived from, there’s no planning. The orders and the policy are not really grounded in the realities of governing.”
He added that ICE and its parent agency, DHS, are living in a “fantasy” to think that following the executive order Wednesday, they “could immediately pivot and build compliant family detention facilities at the drop of a hat.”
“How are they going to construct the facilities in time? How are they going to construct facilities that comply with the [detention center standards]?” Sandweg asked.
The Trump administration also gave no indication of how the new detention projects will be funded. Boogaard said it’s an expensive proposition.
“DHS does not have the budget to do this. It’s enormously expensive,” Boogaard added. “They will almost certainly need supplemental funding from Congress.”
DHS has not indicated if it plans to ask Congress for additional money or how much funding would be necessary.
Several other questions remain, such as how illegal immigrant parents will be able to go through court proceedings while being kept in detention facilities with their kids. Illegal entry is a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in prison.
The order also did not detail the process for reuniting separated children with parents once their legal case is closed, a question raised by several Democrats since Trump introduced his order.
About 4,500 people came to the border as part of 2,235 family units between May 5 and June 9 for an estimated 150 people per day. A senior administration official said Thursday that about 500 children had been reunited with their families in May.
[Also read: 301 migrants who arrived at border over past seven months not family units: DHS]
Boogaard said that answer was positive news, but added reuniting all children with their parents following court proceedings is “paramount,” especially after some have been placed with family members and foster parents.
“What efforts are being made to reunite children with these parents?” Boogaard asked. “Who’s running that process? DHS? HHS? The Office of Refugee Resettlement?”
While details about how the executive order would be carried out were unclear, a media report published Thursday afternoon cited a CBP official who said the Trump administration was about to rescind its zero-tolerance policy further added to the chaos.
CBP rejected that report and said the Border patrol will “continue to refer for prosecution adults who cross the border illegally.” DHS and ICE did not respond to several requests for comment.
Sandweg said the fallout in the two days since the order are par for the course.
“They were put into this impossible situation to handle and accommodate this policy that was in no way thought through or planned for. And that’s the real damage of this. It was done by the implementation of a policy at the highest level. There was no consideration,” he said.
