Just the facts: Kids as policy pawnsNew proof surfaces that family separation was about deterrence and punishment

By Beth Van Schaack

Published 28 November 2018

Just-releases government documents reveal that the underlying intent of the Trump administration’s brutal practice of separating migrant families at the border was, in fact, to deter additional immigration and asylum petitions. Beth Van Schaack writes in Just Security that this is significant, because Trump administration officials have earlier claimed that the forcible separations were mandated by law (thus necessitating congressional action to end the policy) or compelled by “national security” concerns. “We now know neither of these purported justifications is true—this was nothing short of a deliberate policy choice to brutalize parents and their children in order to stop others from seeking refuge in the United States,” Van Schaack writes. “This strengthens the argument I made in an earlier post that the family separation policy is a form of torture for both parents and their children.”

Just-releases government documents reveal that the underlying intent of the Trump administration’s brutal practice of separating migrant families at the border was, in fact, to deter additional immigration and asylum petitions. Beth Van Schaack writes in Just Security that this is significant, because Trump administration officials have earlier claimed that the forcible separations were mandated by law (thus necessitating congressional action to end the policy) or compelled by “national security” concerns.

“We now know neither of these purported justifications is true—this was nothing short of a deliberate policy choice to brutalize parents and their children in order to stop others from seeking refuge in the United States,” Van Schaack writes. “This strengthens the argument I made in an earlier post that the family separation policy is a form of torture for both parents and their children.”

Van Schaack continues:

The new insights came from an important and hard-hitting story aired by 60 Minutes over the weekend entitled “Chaos on the Border.” The story confirms Just Security’s earlier reporting that the forcible separations began much earlier than had been thought and involved many more children than has been admitted by the government. It now appears that upwards of 5,000 children were taken from their parents since Trump’s presidency began. The 60 Minutes piece includes an interview with Scott Shuchart, who recently left the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where he worked in the civil rights and civil liberties division (which he claims has been “frozen out” of these decisions in the administration). Shuchart reveals how terrible the government’s record-keeping was: The Trump administration literally lost track of separated parents and their children (including infants) and thus had no way of reuniting them. This bungling made the family separation policy and reunion implementation all the more harmful, prolonged, and capricious.