US Attorney General: Zero-tolerance policy may split families at border

Nancy Arrington Bryan

Mrs. Nancy Arrington Bryan, age 93, of Rome, passed away at a local healthcare facility on Sunday, May 6, 2018. An inurnment for Mrs. Bryan will be held

at Myrtle Hill Cemetery, Rome. A memorial service will take place at First Presbyterian Church, Rome, at

A full obituary will follow later this week.

Daniel’s Funeral Home has charge of the arrangements.

Mamie Katherine Fricks

Mrs. Mamie Katherine Fricks, age 93, of Rome, passed away at her residence Monday, May 7, 2018.

Services are incomplete at this time and will be announced later by Daniel’s Funeral Home. Daniel’s Funeral Home has charge of the arrangements. SOUTH CHAPEL

Lewis Edgar Moore

Mr. Lewis Edgar Moore, age 88, of Lindale, passed away on Sunday, May 6, 2018, at a local hospital.

Graveside and interment services will be held on Wednesday, May 9, 2018, at 2 p.m. at the graveside in Aragon Cemetery.

The family will receive friends at Henderson & Sons Funeral Home, South Chapel, on Wednesday from 12:30 until 1:30 p.m.

Henderson & Sons Funeral Home, South Chapel, has charge of the funeral arrangements.

SAVANNAH — Moments after a military cargo plane crashed into a Georgia highway, rattled motorists began dialing 911 to report the large aircraft plunged nose-first into the blacktop before erupting into flames and thick smoke.

“It just fell out of the sky and it’s on fire right now,” said one woman who called emergency operators as soon as the plane went down at about 11:27 a.m. Wednesday.

Savannah police released 911 recordings from the crash Monday, five days after the C-130 Hercules cargo plane plummeted down onto Georgia Highway 21. It crashed shortly after taking

SAN DIEGO — A “zero-tolerance” policy toward people who enter the United States illegally may cause families to be separated while parents are prosecuted, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Monday.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it would refer all arrests for illegal entry to federal prosecutors, throwing its weight behind Sessions’ policy announced last month to vastly expand criminal prosecutions of people with few or no previous offenses. A conviction for illegal entry carries a maximum penalty of six months in custody for first-time crossers, though they usually do far less time, and two years for repeat offenses.

“If you cross the border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It’s that simple,” Sessions told reporters on a mesa overlooking the Pacific Ocean, where a border barrier separating San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico juts out into the ocean.

Nearly one of every four Border Patrol arrests on

Attorney General Jeff Sessions (left) greets Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Thomas Homan, right, during a news conference near the border with Tijuana, Mexico, Monday in San Diego.

the Mexican border from October through April was someone who came in a family, meaning any large increase in prosecutions is likely to cause parents to be separated from their children while they face charges and do time in jail.

Children who are separated from their parents would be put under supervision of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, Sessions said. The department’s Office Gregory Bull / AP

of Refugee Resettlement releases children traveling alone to family and places them in shelters.

“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,” Sessions said. “The parents are subject to prosecution while children may not be. So, if we do our duty and prosecute those cases, then children inevitably for a period of time might be in different conditions.”

A heckler interrupted Sessions on a megaphone, shouting, “Why are you doing this? Do you have a heart?”

Thomas Homan, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s acting director, said there is no “blanket policy” to separate families as a way to deter others, echoing recent comments by Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.

But he said immigration authorities have long separated families if they have reason to doubt the relationship or if parent is prosecuted.

“Every law enforcement agency in this country separates parents from children when they’re arrested for a crime,” Homan said alongside Sessions. “There is no new policy. This has always been the policy. Now, you will see more prosecutions because of the attorney general’s commitment to zero tolerance.”

Advocacy groups blasted the moves as cruel and heartless, especially in cases where the family is seeking asylum in the United States.