--- description: Tthe Trump Administration remained unapologetic, doubling down on its policy of separating parents and children apprehended at the border. title: Why President Trump Is Standing by His Family Separation Policy image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2bac688b446c887/698933464ee26284d13121e1/border-patrol-processing-center-mcallen-texas.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Politics](/section/politics/) ## Politics Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Immigration](/tag/immigration/) ## Immigration Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Why President Trump Is Standing by His Family Separation Policy  by [Brian Bennett](/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Jun 19, 2018 4:18 AM CUT  An undated handout photo made available on 18 June 2018 by the US Customs and Border Patrol showing people inside a United States Border Patrol Processing Center, in McAllen, Texas, USA. Media reports on 18 June 2018 state that Laura Bush had called the current zero-tolerance immigration policy by the administration of US President Donald J. Trump that sees children being separated from their parents when they illegally enter the USA as 'cruel', while the US President's wife Melania Trump was quoted as saying that she 'hates to see' children being separated from their families as a reaction to the immigration policy being executed at the US-Mexico border. McAllen processing center for people crossing the US border An undated handout photo made available on 18 June 2018 by the US Customs and Border Patrol showing people inside a United States Border Patrol Processing Center, in McAllen, Texas, USA. Media reports on 18 June 2018 state that Laura Bush had called the current zero-tolerance immigration policy by the administration of US President Donald J. Trump that sees children being separated from their parents when they illegally enter the USA as 'cruel', while the US President's wife Melania Trump was quoted as saying that she 'hates to see' children being separated from their families as a reaction to the immigration policy being executed at the US-Mexico border. McAllen processing center for people crossing the US borderUS CUSTOMS AND BORDER PATROL/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock  by [Brian Bennett](/author/brian-bennett/)  ## Brian Bennett Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME. Jun 19, 2018 4:18 AM CUT Even as [images of children held in chain-link pens](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hhs-releases-images-of-tornillo-detention-facility-holding-immigrants-2018-06-18/ "undefined") and [audio of toddlers crying in detention facilities](https://www.propublica.org/article/children-separated-from-parents-border-patrol-cbp-trump-immigration-policy "undefined") 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”](http://time.com/4418398/donald-trump-convention-speech/ "undefined") 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](http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/06/19/sessions-rebukes-critics-who-compare-border-situation-to-nazi-germany-fundamentally-were-enforcing-law.html "undefined") 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_](http://time.com/5314769/family-separation-policy-donald-trump/ "undefined") Trump himself [remained defiant](http://time.com/5314997/donald-trump-immigration-policy-migrant-camp/ "undefined") on Monday, as he read a statement at the beginning of a speech in the White House to aerospace executives. Trump said the U.S. “will not be a migrant camp and it will not be a refugee holding facility. … Not on my watch.” And he continued to attempt to deflect blame for his own administration’s policy onto his political opponents, adding: “I say it’s very strongly the Democrats’ fault.” Trump appears willing to bear the [heart-wrenching headlines](http://time.com/5314769/family-separation-policy-donald-trump/ "undefined"), at least for now, in the hope they will create political pressure on lawmakers to give him an immigration overhaul he wants. In addition to funding Trump’s promise to build a border wall, the White House’s bill being considered in the House would give deportation officers more authority to remove people more quickly, curb legal immigration based on family ties and eliminate a diversity visa lottery. It would also create a way for those in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program to apply for legal status in the U.S. For the president, it was another example of his usual negotiating stance of building maximum leverage through escalating demands. In this case, however, he’s dealt his way into a moral crisis. Evangelical leaders, four former first ladies and Republican lawmakers such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz criticized the separations, which spiked after April 6 when Sessions announced that anyone caught crossing the border would be prosecuted for illegal entry in federal court. (That policy change is what led to the family separations, because when a parent is held by the U.S. Marshal’s Service pending a federal trial, their child is put in the separate custody of Health and Human Services.) In addition, White House officials are betting that having a heated debate over border security during the summer and into the fall will motivate Trump’s supporters to turn out enthusiastically for Republicans in the mid-term elections. There is polling evidence for that strategy. Republican voters back Trump’s policy of separating children from parents accused of entering the country illegally. A majority of Republicans — 58% — approve of the practice, according to a [CNN poll](https://www.cnn.com/2018/06/18/politics/immigration-trump-approval/index.html "undefined") conducted from June 14 to June 17 and released Monday. Similar numbers surfaced in polls by [Quinnipiac](https://poll.qu.edu/national/release-detail?ReleaseID=2550 "undefined") and [Ipsos](https://www.thedailybeast.com/poll-republicans-approve-of-trumps-family-separation-policy "undefined"). But there was also good reason to worry about a backlash, as no other group that has been polled supports the policy, and by CNN’s count, [two-thirds of Americans disapprove](http://time.com/5315110/family-separation-policy-polling-republicans/ "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5315609/family-separation-policy-trump-doubles-down/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5315609/family-separation-policy-trump-doubles-down/"},"headline":"Why President Trump Is Standing by His Family Separation Policy","datePublished":"2018-06-19T04:18:15.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T11:40:02.791Z","description":"Tthe Trump Administration remained unapologetic, doubling down on its policy of separating parents and children apprehended at the border.","url":"https://time.com/5315609/family-separation-policy-trump-doubles-down/","keywords":["Immigration","White House","Donald Trump","family separation policy"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2bac688b446c887/698933464ee26284d13121e1/border-patrol-processing-center-mcallen-texas.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Brian Bennett","jobTitle":"Bennett is the senior White House correspondent at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/brian-bennett/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltd2bac688b446c887/698933464ee26284d13121e1/border-patrol-processing-center-mcallen-texas.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Immigration Holding Facility, McAllen","caption":"McAllen processing center for people crossing the US border., USA - 18 Jun 2018","creditText":"US CUSTOMS AND BORDER PATROL/HANDOUT/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/immigration/","name":"Immigration"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5315609/family-separation-policy-trump-doubles-down/","name":"Why President Trump Is Standing by His Family Separation Policy"}}]}] ```