Watch Trump repeatedly insist he can't stop family separations before announcing that he plans to stop family separations

President Trump has continually emphasized that he was powerless to end his administration's policy of separating immigrant families at the border, blaming Democrats for laws that required the practice even though the separations began after Trump began his "zero tolerance" immigration policy last month and no law exists that mandates parents be separated from their children.

Now, Trump is reportedly poised to sign an executive order that would halt the separations. Many of his critics, Democrats and Republicans alike, have been pointing out that Trump could have reversed his own policy any time, or that he could have told Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to stop the practice. An executive order would cast doubt on all his previous statements when he claimed that only Congress could pass legislation to fix the problem, The Washington Post reports.

Watch some of the instances when Trump and Nielsen claimed their hands were tied below, via The Washington Post. Summer Meza

Subscribe to The Week

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

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

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