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Trump's Misleading Executive Order on Family Separation

Beware the person who cannot accept accountability for his own missteps. Donald Trump today issued an executive order on separating parents and children at the border. He continues to blame Congress instead of his own Executive Orders for the mess his policies created. He even has the gall to name it "Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation."

It is unfortunate that Congress’s failure to act and court orders have put the Administration in the position of separating alien families to effectively enforce the law.

No one caused these separations but the Trump Administration itself. [More...]

This includes Jefferson Sessions, who announced the "Zero Tolerance" policy in April, and in a written memorandum, directed all U.S. Attorneys to refer all adults who enter the country without authorization for criminal prosecution.

Accordingly, I direct each United States Attorney's Office along the Southwest Border to the extent practicable, and in consultation with DHS- to adopt immediately a zero-tolerance policy for all offenses referred for prosecution under section 1325(a). This zero-tolerance policy shall supersede any existing policies.

This complemented Trump's earlier executive orders and memos on the topic. It was Trump who signed an Executive Order in January, 2017 requiring detention of those who enter the country without proper authorization.

Sec. 2. Policy. It is the policy of the executive branch to:

b) detain individuals apprehended on suspicion of violating Federal or State law, including Federal immigration law, pending further proceedings regarding those violations;

Trump then cemented this with his Executive Memorandum in April, 2018 ending "Catch and Release", under which adults who entered the country without authorization could be processed by the immigration courts and remain in the community while their court cases and requests for asylum were being considered. Trump says his first Order didn't go far enough.

In Executive Order 13767 of January 25, 2017 (Border Security and Immigration Enforcement Improvements), I directed the Secretary of Homeland Security to issue new policy guidance regarding the appropriate and consistent use of detention authority under the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), including the termination of the practice known as ‘‘catch and release,’’ whereby aliens are released in the United States shortly after their apprehension for violations of our immigration laws. On February 20, 2017,
the Secretary issued a memorandum taking steps to end ‘‘catch and release’’ practices. These steps have produced positive results. Still, more must be done to enforce our laws and to protect our country from the dangers of releasing detained aliens into our communities while their immigration claims are pending.

Here is Jefferson Sessions' latest sorry excuse.

There is no law that requires criminal prosecution of misdemeanor unlawful entry cases. As more than 50 former U.S. Attorneys wrote to Sessions this week in a plea to end his zero tolerance policy:

It is a simple matter of fact that the time a Department attorney spends prosecuting misdemeanor illegal entry cases, may be time he or she does not spend investigating more significant crimes like a terrorist plot, a child human trafficking organization, an international drug cartel or a corrupt public official. Under your Zero Tolerance policy, firearms cases, violent crime cases, financial fraud cases, and cases involving public safety on Indian reservations all take a back seat to these lesser, weaker misdemeanor cases. In fact, requiring U.S. Attorneys to bring these misdemeanor cases in every instance detracts from your own stated priority to fight gangs and violent crime by groups such as MS-13.

The combination of unnecessary child trauma and dangerous national security impact is exacerbated by the crushing expense of arresting and detaining every "illegal entry" misdemeanor defendant. At a time when federal prison costs are threatening to blow an unfillable hole in the Department of Justice's budget, the United States must now bear the cost of detaining parents and their entire families for months as their misdemeanor cases wind through the court system. This fiscal burden also falls on the Department of Homeland Security, whose officers and agents process the parents; federal defenders' offices who represent them; the Department of Health and Human Services which houses the children; and the already overburdened federal courts those who enter the U.S. unlawfully.

Last week, in a written decision, Jefferson Sessions overturned long-standing policy on asylum seekers.

Generally, claims by aliens pertaining to domestic violence or gang violence perpetrated by non-governmental actors will not qualify for asylum.

Donald Trump and Jefferson Sessions get an "F" grade when it comes to honesty, transparency, and decency as a human beings. Neither one should be in a leadership position in this country. Donald Trump is trying to bribe Congress. He is demanding that funding for his border wall be included in any immigration bill. He has said over and over that funding his border wall is a necessary component of any bill that reaches his desk. As for Sessions, he must have been born that way. Even his own church has filed a formal complaint against him.

In the meantime, has anyone found the 6,000 missing children?

< Airlines Refuse to Fly Separated Children Back to Home Countries | Immigrant Detainee at Federal Prison Diagnosed With Chicken Pox >
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  • Display: Sort:
    The root of the current crisis (5.00 / 3) (#6)
    by Peter G on Wed Jun 20, 2018 at 09:29:02 PM EST
    is the outrageous "zero tolerance" policy -- implemented only a month or two ago by Sessions -- that deprives U.S. Attorneys of reasonable prosecutorial discretion, long exercised in the great majority of cases, to decline prosecution of Class B misdemeanor immigration law violations ... just as the vast majority of all minor offenses that might theoretically be prosecuted in federal court are not in fact prosecuted. This is not lawless; the reasonable exercise of enforcement discretion is a central feature of our legal system, including but not limited to the criminal justice system. As the former U.S. Attorneys' letter points out, all resources devoted to these cases are stolen from some other area of criminal law enforcement, and probably something more important or urgent. One reason to exercise discretion is awareness of the collateral consequences of doing otherwise. In this case, the impact on border-crossers' families.

    Ever grateful for your presence (5.00 / 1) (#9)
    by Militarytracy on Thu Jun 21, 2018 at 01:54:52 AM EST
    And your thoughtful factual posts that clarify legalities so I know EXACTLY how we got here.

    Without you right this minute it is much easier to stand at a podium and lie to me and perhaps successfully confuse me.

    It is also much easier to fight when I know where and what the cornerstones are. Thank you Peter!!!!

    Parent

    Word from the Washington Post (5.00 / 1) (#25)
    by CoralGables on Thu Jun 21, 2018 at 12:00:32 PM EST
    Prosecution of families with children crossing the border will stop immediately. Jailing entire families for a class B misdemeanor (?) obviously didn't look like a winnable battle either.

    Parent
    For anyone interested in what a "Class B (none / 0) (#28)
    by Peter G on Thu Jun 21, 2018 at 12:54:56 PM EST
    misdemeanor" is -- the crime is defined in section 1325 of title 8, U.S. Code, which provides a maximum jail sentence of six months. A crime with that maximum is defined elsewhere in the U.S. Code as a "Class B misdemeanor."  Which by the way is also within the statutory definition of a "petty offense." (According to the Supreme Court, fewer constitutional procedural rights apply to "petty offenses.") The actual punishment imposed, by the way, is almost always "time served" (prior to first seeing a judge) and an immediate remand to immigration custody for removal (deportation).  

    Parent
    What are these "Ports of Entry" that (none / 0) (#30)
    by desertswine on Thu Jun 21, 2018 at 01:37:51 PM EST
    they keep referring to?  They cannot possibly be the same Ports of Entry that I used when I was working with wildlife. Because there were only 3 that I recall in Texas;  Houston, Laredo, and El Paso.  Is there a list of cities?

    Parent
    Sessions cited the Bible to justify his policy. (none / 0) (#12)
    by vml68 on Thu Jun 21, 2018 at 08:08:41 AM EST
    The root of the current crisis is the outrageous "zero tolerance" policy -- implemented only a month or two ago by Sessions

    I am no theologian but I think it was part of Jesus' preaching of zero tolerance. /s

    Parent

    DOD agreed (none / 0) (#18)
    by KeysDan on Thu Jun 21, 2018 at 09:32:34 AM EST
    To send JAG active duty officers to assist DOJ
    in immigration prosecutions. Sessions will teach them what they need to know...and give the resources of the relevant US Codes and his marked pages of the BIble.

    Parent
    word have meanings (1.00 / 4) (#1)
    by thomas rogan on Wed Jun 20, 2018 at 04:21:07 PM EST
    The Central American economic immigrants crossed all of Mexico rather than settling in a Spanish speaking country.  Perhaps we can likewise give them free passage and let them into Canada if they are really "asylum seekers".  I'm sure Canada would never turn away an asylum seeker, after all.

    You have no idea (none / 0) (#4)
    by MKS on Wed Jun 20, 2018 at 05:01:33 PM EST
    what you are talking about.

    That really bugs you that they speak Spanish, no?

    Parent

    Who do you think (none / 0) (#5)
    by MKS on Wed Jun 20, 2018 at 05:05:56 PM EST
    screwed up the countries in Central America?  Do you have the first clue about the conditions there?  What caused them?

    No, of course not.

    Parent

    Do these words have meaning? (none / 0) (#7)
    by Molly Bloom on Wed Jun 20, 2018 at 09:32:38 PM EST
    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated

    Is the seizure of children of tender years from their parents per se unreasonable? If so, is it actionable a la Bivens?

    Parent

    It is debatable whether undocumented non-citizens (5.00 / 3) (#8)
    by Peter G on Wed Jun 20, 2018 at 10:48:17 PM EST
    stopped at the border are part of "the people" (of the United States) whose rights are protected by the Fourth Amendment, or that protecting them from unreasonable seizur