The separation of illegal immigrant families at the border started to climb in March 2017, but began snowballing following the Trump administration’s implementation of its zero-tolerance border policy, leaving officials struggling to handle a flood of children, according to a new report.
In a report released Wednesday by the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, the Office of Refugee Resettlement stated it noticed an increased number of children separated from their parents three months into the new Trump administration, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The GAO said about three out of every 1,000 children were separated from their parents at the end of the Obama administration. By March 2017, that figure had grown to 26 out of every 1,000, and reached 37 per 1,000 by August 2017, The Washington Times reported.
Yet in November of 2017, ORR officials were told not to plan for a continued increase because the government didn’t have a policy of separating parents from their children, according to GAO, the Journal reported.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the Department of Justice’s commitment to the zero-tolerance policy in April 2018.
“This disturbing GAO report shows the tragic consequences of carrying out a cruel and misguided policy impacting thousands of families without any preparation or prior notification to the agencies charged with implementing it,” Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., who requested the investigation, wrote in a statement, the Journal reported.
Katie Waldman, a Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman, wrote that the departments “have worked tirelessly” to reunite families, and added: “The Trump administration also takes seriously its responsibility to execute the laws passed by Congress,” the Journal reported.
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