‘NO CLEAR PATH’

New DHS Report Says Trump Administration Knew It Could Not Reunite Thousands of Children With Parents

A new 60-page report indicates that the administration knowingly carried on with a policy that it estimated would separate 26,000 children.

Officials at the agency responsible for separating thousands of children from their families under the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” policy in 2018 were aware at the time that they did not have sufficient means to reunite the children with relatives, according to a new report. The 60-page report from the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General released on Wednesday stated that the Customs and Border Protection agency had to rescind their previous estimate of 2,800 children who were separated at the border and change it to 3,014. The DHS’s internal watchdog said that if President Trump had not been pressured to end the policy in June of last year, 26,000 additional children would have been separated—a prediction that was made by the Trump administration itself. The administration’s family separation policy was in effect from April 2018 to June 2018 across the U.S.-Mexico border.