President Trump did not just clash with outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen over the legality and effectiveness of reinstating the migrant family-separation policy he ended last summer amid bipartisan outrage, as NBC News reported Monday morning. He wanted to expand "zero tolerance" to all migrant families who traveled over the U.S.-Mexico border, legally or illegally, in the U.S. or at the border, CNN reports, citing multiple sources.
Nielsen noted that federal courts had blocked family separation and White House staffers argued it would be another unmitigated PR disaster, CNN reports. But Trump said he thinks separating families is an effective deterrent. "He just wants to separate families," a senior administration told CNN.
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