Comment on Why President Trump Is Standing by His Family Separation Policy

Even as images of children held in chain-link pens and audio of toddlers crying in detention facilities were broadcast Monday, the Trump Administration remained unapologetic, doubling down on its policy of separating parents and children apprehended at the border. Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen delivered an unyielding performance in the White House briefing room on Monday, defending the family separation policy and calling on lawmakers to overturn the policy with a sweeping immigration overhaul. “Congress and the courts created this problem, and Congress alone can fix it,” Nielsen said, in an awkward echo of Trump’s promise that “I alone can fix it” at the 2016 Republican National Convention. For her part, Nielsen denied that the practice is designed to deter other families from attempting the dangerous illegal trek across the southwest border and said the separations are the result of loopholes in the law that need to be fixed. But within hours, she was contradicted by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who acknowledged in an interview on Fox News that prosecuting parents and separating them from their children is, in part, meant to send a signal to other would-be migrants. “Yes, hopefully people will get the message,” Sessions said, “and come through the border at the port of entry and not [come] across the border unlawfully.” Read More: Here Are the Facts About Trump’s Family Separation Policy Trump himself remained defiant on Monday, as he read a statement at the beginning of a speech in the White House to aerospace executives.