Donald Trump has declared his intent to escalate his crackdown on immigration if he returns to the presidency, potentially reviving the controversial policy of family separations at the U.S.-Mexico border. However, some key allies are hesitant about implementing such measures due to concerns about public backlash. Five former Trump officials and conservative allies have expressed worries about a repeat of the widespread outcry provoked by the original 2018 “zero tolerance” policy, which resulted in the separation of thousands of children from their parents at the border.
Tom Homan, a former Trump immigration official who may join a second administration, stated that keeping families together in a residential center and conducting their hearings jointly would be a better approach. Trump, who is currently the frontrunner for the Republican Party’s 2024 presidential nomination, has made border security a prominent theme of his campaign. He pledges to reinstate the hardline policies of his previous presidency and implement stricter measures to curb both legal and illegal immigration.
During a CNN town hall in May, Trump praised the effectiveness of family separations and did not rule out their reinstatement. Civil rights activists are alarmed by his statements and are prepared to challenge any new version of the policy in court. The Trump campaign declined to comment on the matter.
The issue of how to handle families crossing the border illegally has troubled both Republican and Democratic administrations. Since taking office, President Biden has faced a surge in illegal border crossings, including a recent increase in family arrivals. In April 2018, the Trump administration launched the “zero tolerance” policy as a deterrent, resulting in parents being charged with immigration crimes and sent to jail while their children were placed in shelters.
Trump ended the policy in June 2018 due to the backlash and instead aimed to detain families together. However, a 2015 court order limited family detention to 20 days, often insufficient time to process asylum claims and potentially deport them. With some opinion polls indicating that voters in battleground states favor Trump over Biden on immigration issues, the Biden campaign is reminding them of Trump’s separation policy, which was widely unpopular.
Former acting homeland chief Chad Wolf, who is now the executive director of the America First Policy Institute, a Trump-aligned think tank, believes that all options should be considered, including revisiting family separations. However, he acknowledged that the U.S. public did not support this approach and that alternative actions could achieve the same objective.
If Trump were to implement a family separation policy, he would likely face legal challenges. Following the end of “zero tolerance” in 2018, a federal judge ordered the administration to reunite the families in response to a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt stated that the organization would take legal action to enforce the prohibition if separations were to resume.
Mark Morgan, a top border official under Trump, does not believe that a new Trump administration would implement family separations in the same manner as before. He, along with Homan, Wolf, and others, pointed to Trump’s 2019 “remain in Mexico” policy as a better alternative. This program required certain non-Mexican migrants to wait in Mexico until their U.S. cases were resolved and coincided with a decrease in border apprehensions, including those of families. Biden has moved to end the “remain in Mexico” policy, but Trump has promised to reinstate it if reelected.
