Who Began Migrant Family Separations Obama of Trump

When questioned past interviewers about migrant children detained at the southern border, President Donald Trump has tried to steer the arraign toward the previous assistants, saying former President Barack Obama initiated the policy of separating those children from their caregivers, even though fact checkers take consistently plant that claim to exist imitation.

During an interview on NBC'south "Meet the Printing," which aired Sunday, Trump told host Chuck Todd that he "inherited separation from President Obama" and that "I was the 1 that ended it."

"When I became president, President Obama had a separation policy. I didn't have it. He had it. I brought the families together. I'yard the ane that put them together," he told Telemundo's José Díaz Balart in an interview that aired Th.

And on Thursday he told Time magazine that "I inherited separation" and "I'm the one that put the families back together."

Only, according to FactCheck.org, "previous administrations did non have a blanket policy to prosecute parents and separate them from their children." It was after the Trump administration announced its "zippo-tolerance" immigration policy in April 2018, in which everyone who illegally entered the U.South. was referred for criminal prosecution, that thousands of migrant children were separated from their parents.

"We don't want to separate families, but we don't want families to come to the border illegally and attempt to enter into this country improperly," said then-Attorney Full general Jeff Sessions when the policy was announced. "The parents are subject to prosecution while children may not exist. So, if we practice our duty and prosecute those cases, then children inevitably for a period of time might be in different conditions."

In a May 2018 interview, then-White Firm Chief of Staff John Kelly told NPR a "large name of the game is deterrence" in stopping illegal immigration, and that family separations "would exist a tough deterrent."

Fact check:Did the Obama assistants carve up families?

Migrant apprehensions and deportations during Obama's presidency outpaced those of Trump'south first years co-ordinate to Department of Homeland Security data and a report published Friday by Axios. But PolitiFact institute that family separations were rare during the Obama and Bush-league administrations and became "systematic" under Trump'southward zero-tolerance policy.

In 2014, at that place was a surge in the number of migrant children arriving at the border. The vast majority were unaccompanied, and thousands were detained in makeshift detention centers that included overcrowded chain-link fence cages where they were forced to sleep on the floor with infinite blankets.

More than:Weather in 2014: A expect at detention heart flooded immigrant children

The Obama assistants sought to keep families together in detention, just a court ruling held that those children could not be held more 20 days. So, officials began to release entire families, except in cases where custody could not exist established or the parent was beingness prosecuted for another law-breaking, such as drug smuggling, co-ordinate to PolitiFact.

Reuniting families:It may take ii years to identify thousands of migrant children

The Trump administration has stressed that family separations also occurred nether other presidents since the first wave of backlash to the zero-tolerance policy.

Then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tried to justify the effects of the "goose egg-tolerance" policy during a June 2018 news conference past saying  "the Obama assistants, the Bush administration all separated families." But she conceded that "their rate was less than ours."

Two days later, Trump signed an executive order catastrophe the family separations amid an international outcry. Six days subsequently that, a federal judge ordered that the children must exist reunited with their families. A February 2019 court filing found that more than 2,700 of 2,816 separated children had been released. But a January 2019 report from the Department Health and Human Services' inspector general establish that thousands more may have been separated than the two,800 who have been identified.

Watchdog:Thousands more migrant children may have been separated at border than previously reported

More than:Trump assistants has separated hundreds of children from their migrant families since 2018

Afterwards Nielsen resigned in Apr 2019, Trump was asked during a news conference in the Oval Office nearly reports that he wished to reinstitute the nada-tolerance policy that had led to the high number of family separations.

"Just then you lot understand, President Obama separated the children," Trump said. "I'm the one that stopped it." Merely during the same news conference, Trump defended the policy, arguing that without it, "you lot see many more than people coming."

"They're coming like it's a picnic" and telling themselves, "'Let'due south go to Disneyland,'" the president said.

More:Trump calls for changes to immigration laws, says the border is 'like Disneyland'

Similarly, in his interviews with NBC, Time and Telemundo. even every bit Trump decried family unit separations, he lamented that without them "more people would come up upwards."

In all 3 interviews, Trump was non directly challenged on his claim that family separation were an Obama-era policy. On Sunday, NBC'south Todd was widely criticized on social media for letting Trump's assertion stand.

In promoting the interview, NBC tweeted nearly Trump maxim he "inherited" child separation from Obama. The network followed upward an hour and a half later with a tweet clarifying, "As NBC News previously reported, this merits is false."

Although his administration says there is a crisis on the U.South.-Mexico border, Trump told Todd that "the border's doing corking" when asked well-nigh the high number of migrants arriving at that place in recent months.

"Just does it frustrate you that your edge numbers are worse than Obama's?" Todd asked Trump.

"They're pouring up considering the economy is so expert. Obama had a lousy economy," Trump said.

When asked nearly the conditions in which separated migrant children are beingness kept, Trump said, "Nosotros're doing a fantastic job under the circumstances." And he blamed congressional Democrats for "property up the humanitarian assistance."

More:Trump administration cuts English classes, soccer and legal aid for migrant children at shelters

More:Thousands of migrant children study they were sexually assaulted in U.South. custody

During an interview on CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday, Vice President Mike Pence was asked well-nigh a Department of Justice lawyer'due south statement earlier a three-gauge panel at the Ninth U.Due south. Circuit Courtroom of Appeals that the regime is not required to provide migrant children with toothbrushes or lather.

"I can't speak to what that lawyer was proverb," Pence said before blaming Democrats for failing to advisable for funds.

"This is the wealthiest nation in the world. We have money to give toothpaste and soap and blankets to these kids in this facility in El Paso County.  Right now, we do," CNN host Jake Tapper told Pence.

"Of grade we practice," Pence replied.

Detention:Trump administration to hold migrant children in former Japanese internment campsite

Deaths:A x-year-old from El salvador is the 6th migrant child to dice in Us custody in 8 months

More:Migrant children depict neglect and mistreatment at a Texas edge facility

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Source: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/06/23/trump-falsely-says-obama-started-family-separation/1540733001/

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