Biden administration, ACLU settle lawsuit over family separations at border

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

59% : ""In the situations observed by Dr. Wise, parents and children left the CBP facility together as a family unit after they were processed by CBP.
58% : ""We also recognize the important work of non-governmental organizations that have stood by the families and continue to support their reunification.
57% : "Wise made clear the actions were not the same as separations, and federal attorneys said CBP "emphasizes that it is imperative to distinguish between the two situations.
53% : Even during the El Paso Initiative, it was clear CBP could not track children after they were separated from their parents -- relying on an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet rather than the agency's databases -- the agency forged ahead on the program in 2018.
52% : Along with the policy, federal officials also exported the slapdash structure of the El Paso Initiative, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials relied on an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet rather than the agency's databases to track children.
48% : "After the pilot program of separating families had concluded," CBP and the Office of Refugee Resettlement -- which is responsible for children who come to the U.S. without parents or guardians -- told the administration about the "very deficiencies that eventually plagued the Policy's implementation.
48% : "After the pilot program of separating families had concluded," CBP and the Office of Refugee Resettlement -- which is responsible for children who come to the U.S. without parents or guardians -- told the administration about the "very deficiencies that eventually plagued the Policy's implementation.
44% : In a 25-page report, the Department of Homeland Security's Inspector General said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported at least 348 parents separated from their children without documenting whether parents wanted to leave their children in the U.S.The agency's policy left "significant discretion" to individual field offices, the OIG said, and only required ICE to allow parents to coordinate their travel with children.
44% : "Administration officials repeatedly insisted family separation was not a 'policy' while systemically targeting families to prosecute parents and repeatedly acknowledging in public that the practice of separating families was intended to 'deter' migration to the United States," the AIC wrote.
42% : However, despite signs that CBP was fundamentally unable to keep track of the children after they were separated -- and warnings from social workers at the Office of Refugee Resettlement who said children would suffer under the policy -- the Trump administration forged ahead, launching the so-called "zero tolerance" policy in 2018 and expanding the El Paso Initiative across the entire U.S.-Mexico border.
36% : "U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials could separate families in cases of abuse, or if the parent committed serious crimes, the ACLU said.
36% : "The program began in July 2017 when CBP sought to prosecute the misdemeanor charge of improper entry, including parents who crossed into the U.S. with their children.
32% : Sessions sought to blame court decisions that guide how ICE can deal with migrant children, while former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen took a different tack, writing on Twitter that DHS did not have a policy that separated families -- despite the fact that the family separations were a consequence of the administration's choice to prosecute asylum-seeking families for illegal entry.

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