October 25, 2019
Assessing the Legal Landscape of Family Separation in the Immigration Context
Former Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen was interviewed this week as part of FORTUNE’s “Most Powerful Women Summit” in Washington. Nielsen, who seemed nonplussed that her interviewer, PBS NewsHour’s Amna Nawaz, intended to conduct a serious interview and not simply sit back and let the former Trump administration official recite her cybersecurity talking points, doubled down on her role in family separation, stating that she did not regret “enforcing the law.”
While prior presidential administrations have certainly struggled with periodic migration and border security challenges, officials in the Trump administration revived a controversial proposal that had been considered briefly during the Obama administration, but quickly shelved as “too opprobrious and unpalatable.” Once implemented last year, the early effects of the family separation policy and practice were swift, and devastating: Children were separated from their parents or family members at the border as a consequence of a new prosecutive guideline from the Justice Department. Parents were given little or no information about where the children were re-located to, or when, if ever, the families would be reunited. While statistics available as of early fall 2019 indicate that over 4,000 children were separated from their parents at the southern border, the numbers continue to go up, including new information from the ACLU that more “tender age” children were separated than previously disclosed. It took advocacy litigation and a court order to begin the process of reunification, a process that continues even today.
Read the full article in Just Security.
More from CNAS
-
From Mardi Gras to the Philippines: A Review of DHS Homeland Security Investigations
Reports
Introduction As it approaches 20 years since its creation, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is due for substantial updates in order to improve its ability to adapt t...
By Carrie Cordero & Katie Galgano
-
Hearing on Securing the Homeland: Reforming DHS to Meet Today’s Threats
Congressional Testimony
Submitted Written Testimony I. Introduction Chairman Thompson, Ranking Member Katko, and members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today on...
By Carrie Cordero
-
Reassessing Homeland Security Intelligence
Reports
Introduction The discipline of intelligence has been a central element of the homeland security enterprise over the past two decades since the terrorist attacks of September 1...
By Christian Beckner
-
The Department of Homeland Security: Priorities for Reform
Reports
There is an opportunity to reform the Department of Homeland Security in a way that best protects the country from homeland security threats, consistent with law, security and...
By Carrie Cordero & Katie Galgano
