Source: USA Today
The new Zero Tolerance policy implemented under the Trump administration maintains that anyone who is crossing the U.S. border illegally and who has children with them will be detained and their children removed from them immediately.
The administration claims that this is not a new policy, that the separation of children from their immigrant parents has always happened, which is true under the circumstance that a parent is criminally charged. However the new policy has increased the number of children that are being separated from their families, as reported by USA Today.
Additionally, the administration has developed stricter policies on those seeking asylum, which has reduced the number of cases in which immigrants receive asylum and they are instead treated as criminals and their children are taken from them and placed in holding centers.
Photos emerged recently revealing the experience for immigrant children who are separated from their families and placed into cells, to sleep on floors and on mats.
NPR’s “All Things Considered” reported on the outcry against the Trump administration policy of separating immigrant parents from their children at the U.S./Mexico border. Linda Rivas, who was interviewed in our immigration panel, was featured in the report. You can watch our immigration panel recorded in collaboration with KCOSTV below: