LogFAQs > #903451409

Corrik posted...

Though Trump has reportedly been wanting the law changed also to allow parents to be detained with children during their cases. Apparently Obama tried this and was shot down by the courts, so he continued with the exceptions.

I am struggling to find a source that says Obama separated children from parents.

Like...here's an interview quote denying it:

former President Barack Obama's domestic policy director, Cecilia Muoz, stated unequivocally that separating children from their parents was not a policy the Obama administration followed.

"The Obama administration did not do that, no. We did not separate children from their parents," Muoz said.

Here's a source saying that it happened only in cases of possible domestic violence:

Separating parents from children was rare under the Obama administration and in the early part of the Trump administration, usually reserved only for cases where the safety of a child was in question. Nearly 1,800 immigrant families were separated over 17 months prior to February, according to a Reuters report.

Here's one that says the law existed as far back as 2005, but both the Bush and Obama administrations did not enforce it:

The zero tolerance practice of immediately imprisoning, prosecuting, and deporting immigrants who illegally enter the United States has been around since 2005, but the George W. Bush and Obama administrations were morally and pragmatically opposed to separating immigrant children from their families, even if some adult immigrants were clearly taking advantage of that compassion.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/separating-families-at-border-was-always-part-of-the-plan.html

Don't get me wrong, the Obama administration had a pretty bad record from human rights advocates over its immigration policy, but not on this particular point. (More on stuff like making 3 year olds represent themselves in court--the Obama administration definitely did that). Separating children from parents seems to have become policy part way through the Trump administration (not when Trump first took office, about a year later).
---

Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision