In the spring of this year, Homeland Security, under then-Secretary John Kelly, floated the idea of deterring illegal immigration with a new, harsh policy: separate parents from their children when they are caught at the border.
After uproar from opponents, that idea ended when a California federal judge ruled that detaining children violates the rule that our government cannot detain children in a “jail-like setting.”
Now the idea has come back and ICE has signed off on it. The change here is that children would stay with sponsors or in children’s shelters, not in detention facilities — but they would still potentially be apart from their parents or guardians for years, prompting renewed backlash.
To explain more we’re joined by Nick Miroff, national security reporter with the Washington Post.
