Donald Trump's immigration policy in limbo as border officials end prosecutions

In limbo: Donald Trump's tough immigration policy in under threat
REUTERS
David Gardner26 June 2018

President Donald Trump ’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy was in tatters today after US border officials revealed they have stopped prosecuting families who are caught crossing illegally into America.

The prosecutions were a cornerstone of Mr Trump’s crackdown, but after the president bowed to global pressure last week to end the separation of children from their migrant parents, the policy has been left in limbo.

US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said he had ordered a temporary hold on criminal action against illegal migrants after Mr Trump signed the order.

He said it was impossible to prosecute parents unless they were detained apart from their families, because children cannot be held in adult immigration detention centres.

But Mr McAleenan insisted the zero tolerance strategy was still in force.

Under the current guidelines, immigrants caught trying to enter the country illegally will be given a court summons and let go – the “catch and release” policy that Mr Trump has railed against since his election campaign.

Mr McAleenan said: “We can work on a plan where adults who bring kids across, who violate our laws, who risk their lives at the border could be prosecuted without an extended separation from their children. We’re looking at how to implement that now.”

Inside a shelter for children of detained migrants

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White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stressed the administration’s reversal was only temporary, adding: “We’re going to run out of space. We’re going to run out of resources to keep people together.”

The latest development in the saga that left 2,300 children in shelters along the border with Mexico came as the Pentagon said two Texas military bases would be used as temporary camps.

Despite the reversal, many children and parents have not been reunited.

A tearful mother from Guatemala yesterday told reporters in El Paso, Texas, her son aged four was taken away after they crossed the border and ended up at a New York shelter. When she tried to contact her son via a social worker, she was told he did not want to talk as he believed she had abandoned him.

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