Jeff Sessions: Families entering U.S. illegally will be split up

Jeff Sessions.
(Image credit: Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced on Monday the Trump administration is splitting up all undocumented parents and children who cross the border together, with the parents immediately sent to detention centers and federal court.

"If you are smuggling a child then we will prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you as required by law," Sessions said during a law enforcement conference in Arizona. "If you don't like that, then don't smuggle children over our border." He also said there's a "massive influx" of people crossing the southwest border, "but we're not going to stand for this."

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.