USA TODAY International Edition
Report: Family separation policy was poorly planned
Review says DHS wasn’t ready to implement plan
The Department of Homeland Security did not properly plan for, or implement, President Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy that led to more than 2,500 family separations along the border this summer, according to a report released Tuesday. The department detained hundreds of minors longer than legally allowed, gave inconsistent and incomplete information to their parents, and could not provide basic data on the separated families, according to the report by the DHS Office of Inspector General. Since Congress has not ordered any kind of investigation into the controversial practice that plagued the Trump administration throughout the summer, the IG report marks the first government attempt to understand what went wrong with the ill-fated, now-reversed family separation policy. “DHS was not fully prepared to implement the Zero Tolerance Policy, or to deal with certain effects of the policy following implementation,” write the report’s authors. The IG review was first reported by The Washington Post. Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, called the report “damning” and said it confirmed that the administration “misled Congress and the American people” for months about the family separation policy. The ACLU, which led a lawsuit that halted the separations, agreed. Homeland Security spokeswoman Katie Waldman said the report illustrates the “difficulties in enforcing immigration laws that are broken and poorly written.” But she said the administration will continue referring all illegal border crossers for prosecution – the central component of the “zero tolerance” policy – and the department remains committed to ensuring “there are consequences for illegal actions.” According to the IG report, maintaining that immigration enforcement posture will require widespread changes across the department. Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the “zero tolerance” policy on April 6. Previously, most undocumented immigrants caught crossing the border were placed into civil deportation proceedings, often released into the U.S. and ordered to appear before an immigration judge. Under the new policy, all of them would be referred for criminal prosecution and most would be detained until their court hearing. At the same time, federal law and a 1997 court settlement limits the amount of time children can be held in detention centers. That combination led the government to begin separating families at a far higher rate than had been done before. The report identified problems from the start. Minors are supposed to be held in Customs and Border Patrol facilities for no more than 72 hours before they are transferred to the care of the Department of Health and Human Services. But in at least 821 cases, they were held for longer periods of time, including one minor held for 25 days. The report found that agents misled parents about the fate, and the location, of their children. The report describes the plight of one father detained at a Border Patrol facility who was taken to court and told that his 5year-old daughter would be waiting for him when he returned. When he arrived in court, he was given a flyer explaining that he would be separated. He was not returned to the Border Patrol facility. The government is in the final stages of reuniting more than 2,500 children who were separated from their parents.