DOJ rescinds ‘zero-tolerance’ immigration rule

Trump-era ruling separated more than 5,500 children from parents

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Tuesday rescinded a Trump-era memo that established a “zero-tolerance” enforcement policy for migrants crossing the Mexican border illegally, which resulted in thousands of family separations.

Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson issued the new memo to federal prosecutors nationwide, saying the department would return to its long-standing previous policy and instruct prosecutors to act on the merits of individual cases.

“Consistent with this long-standing principle of making individualized assessments in criminal cases, I am rescinding — effective immediately — the policy directive,” Wilkinson wrote.

The zero-tolerance policy meant that any adult caught crossing the border illegally would be prosecuted. Because children cannot be jailed with their family members, families were separated, and children were taken into custody by Health and Human Services, which manages unaccompanied children at the border.

Cancellation of the policy undoes the

Trump administration’s unpopular policy, which separated more than 5,500 children from their parents at the Mexican border.

The ending of the policy will affect mostly single men who have entered the country illegally. Prosecutions had dropped sharply after the Trump administration declared a pandemic-related health emergency that allowed immediate expulsion of Mexicans and many Central Americans without applying immigration laws.

Some of the parents separated from their children were deported. Advocates for the families have called on President Joe Biden to allow those families to reunite in the United States.