January 15, 2021 at 2:38 PM
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(Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty)
“We do not have a policy of separating families at the border. Period,” former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen tweeted indignantly on June 17, 2018. Which was true, but only in the most literal sense. What DHS and the Justice Department
did have was a policy to arrest virtually everyone who tried to enter the country between border stations, automatically rendering any children apprehended “unaccompanied” and forcing them into state custody.
“I have put in place a ‘zero tolerance’ policy for illegal entry on our Southwest border. If you cross this border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple,” then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on May 7, 2018. “If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, then we will prosecute you. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law.”