President Donald Trump falsely claimed that his policy of separating migrant children from their parents at the southern U.S. border was the “exact same” as the one implemented during the Obama administration.
In complaining about a “60 Minutes” segment that aired Sunday, Trump tried to deflect criticism of his “zero tolerance” immigration policy by arguing that former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush also separated immigrant families.
“I tried to keep them together but the problem is, when you do that, vast numbers of additional people storm the Border,” Trump tweeted Sunday. “So with Obama seperation [sic] is fine, but with Trump it’s not.”
.@60Minutes did a phony story about child separation when they know we had the exact same policy as the Obama Administration. In fact a picture of children in jails was used by other Fake Media to show how bad (cruel) we are, but it was in 2014 during O years. Obama separated....
....children from parents, as did Bush etc., because that is the policy and law. I tried to keep them together but the problem is, when you do that, vast numbers of additional people storm the Border. So with Obama seperation is fine, but with Trump it’s not. Fake 60 Minutes!
Obama deported a record number of immigrants during his time in office which earned him the nickname of “deporter-in-chief.” Prioritizing the removal of people with criminal histories, Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported more than 2.7 million people between fiscal years 2009 and 2016.
The administration worked to quickly detain and deport migrants for several months in 2014, in response to a surge in migrant arrivals. Yet children who had come into the country with their parents didn’t get separated from them, and if families got deported, they were deported together.
The Ninth Circuit ruled that the Flores agreement ― a 1997 federal court decision requiring children to remain in custody for as little time as possible ― also applied to both accompanied and unaccompanied children. They could only be held in detention for a maximum of 20 days.
As for deportations, the Trump administration opted to prosecute every single migrant who crossed the border illegally, expanding the Obama-era strategy of focusing on criminals.
The notion that Trump is merely carrying out Obama’s legacy is “preposterous,” Denise Gilman, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas Law School, told NBC News. “There were occasionally instances where you would find a separated family — maybe like one every six months to a year — and that was usually because there had been some actual individualized concern that there was a trafficking situation or that the parent wasn’t actually the parent.”
“The agencies were surfacing every possible idea,” a top Obama domestic policy advisor, Cecilia Muñoz, told The New York Times. “I do remember looking at each other like, ‘We’re not going to do this, are we?’ We spent five minutes thinking it through and concluded that it was a bad idea. The morality of it was clear — that’s not who we are.”
FILE - This Jan. 11, 2012 file photo shows a man waiting to be processed at a Border Patrol detention center in Imperial Beach, Calif. With border crossings at a 40-year low, the U.S. Border Patrol announced a new strategy Tuesday, May 8, 2012 that targets repeat crossers and tries to find out why they keeping coming. For nearly two decades, the Border Patrol has relied on a strategy that blanketed heavily trafficked corridors for illegal immigrants with agents, pushing migrants to more remote areas where they would presumably be easier to capture and discouraged from trying again. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull, File)
Gary Mead
FILE -In a March 13, 2012 file photo, Gary Mead, executive associate director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Enforcement and Removal Operations, stands at a new civil detention facility for low-risk detainees in Karnes City, Texas. The U.S. is locking up more illegal immigrants than ever before, generating a lucrative business for the nation's largest prison companies. Mead said that the government has never studied if privatizing immigrant detention saves money. (AP Photo/Will Weissert, File)
AP A TX USA Family Detention Center
Gary Mead
FILE -In a March 13, 2012 file photo, Gary Mead, executive associate director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Enforcement and Removal Operations, speaks to reporters by a soccer field at a new civil detention facility for low-risk detainees in Karnes City, Texas, on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. The U.S. is locking up more illegal immigrants than ever before, generating a lucrative business for the nation's largest prison companies. Mead said that the government has never studied if privatizing immigrant detention saves money. (AP Photo/Will Weissert, File)
A hallway near the medical and dental clinics at a new civil detention facility for low-risk inmates in Karnes City, Texas, on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. Federal officials are holding up the new facility as the centerpiece of an initiative to treat those facing immigration violation charges more humanely after lawsuits filed in past years. (AP Photo/Will Weissert)
A guard holds open a door to the barber shop at a new civil detention facility for low-risk inmates in Karnes City, Texas, on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. Federal officials are holding up the new facility as the centerpiece of an initiative to treat those facing immigration violation charges more humanely after lawsuits filed in past years. (AP Photo/Will Weissert)
A guard walks by rooms at a new civil detention facility for low-risk inmates in Karnes City, Texas, on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. Federal officials are holding up the new facility as the centerpiece of an initiative to treat those facing immigration violation charges more humanely after lawsuits filed in past years. (AP Photo/Will Weissert)
FILE - TO GO WITH INMIGRANTE DETENCION - In this Dec. 17, 2011 file photo, Tara Ammons Cohen reads with her son, Gavin, about a family friend in the local newspaper. Ammons Cohen was arrested in October 2008 on a drug charge and spent nearly three years locked up at the federal immigration detention center in Tacoma. She can
Advocates opposed to a planned New Jersey immigrant detention center gather at Military Park in Newark, N.J., prior to marching to the Essex County Freeholders meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A contract to enlarge an existing facility was canceled earlier this year after questioned were raised as to why a politically connected company was the sole bidder. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Advocates opposed to a planned New Jersey immigrant detention center gather at Military Park in Newark, N.J., prior to marching to the Essex County Freeholders meeting, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2011. A contract to enlarge an existing facility was canceled earlier this year after questioned were raised as to why a politically connected company was the sole bidder. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Ryann Greenberg, Ava Greenberg
In this photo taken Tuesday, July 26, 2011, Ryann Greenberg, left, stands with her daughter Ava, 2, in their back yard as she points to land in the distance where a proposed detention center would be built in Pembroke Pines, Fla. Town leaders in nearby Southwest Ranches have plans to build a 1,500-bed detention center facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A growing group of residents from Southwest Ranches and neighboring cities are seeking to halt the effort. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
In this photo taken Tuesday, July 26, 2011, a sign is posted at the site for a proposed detention center to be built in Southwest Ranches, Fla. Town leaders in this upscale rural enclave have plans to build a 1,500-bed detention center facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A growing group of residents from Southwest Ranches and neighboring cities are seeking to halt the effort. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
*In this photo taken Tuesday, July 26, 2011, horses graze at the Blue Heron Ranch in Southwest Ranches, Fla. Town leaders in this upscale rural enclave have plans to build a 1,500-bed detention center facility for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. A growing group of residents from Southwest Ranches and neighboring cities are seeking to halt the effort. (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)
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