The Trump administration is separating 2 children from their families at the border every hour

The Trump administration is separating an average of two children from their families every single hour at the border, MSNBC's David Gura tweeted Friday, using data obtained by The Associated Press. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's statistics show that 1,995 minors have been separated from 1,940 adults in the six-week period between April 19 and May 31 as part of the administration's new "zero tolerance" policy for immigrants illegally trying to enter the U.S., as announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May.

Sessions has defended the administration's policy by citing the Bible, leading frustrated reporters to confront White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday. In addition to the nearly 2,000 children separated at the border, another 35 minors were separated at ports of entry in May and early June, and more than 50 were separated at official designated border crossings in March and April.

President Trump has attempted to pin his administration's heavily criticized policy on Democrats. "The Democrats are forcing the breakup of families at the border with their horrible and cruel legislative agenda," he tweeted Friday, although that is a lie.

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