President Trump on Tuesday refuted reports that his administration wants to once again separate migrant children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexico border.
"We're not looking to do that, no," he told reporters. "We're not looking to do that." Trump added that when families are not separated, "you have many more people coming. They are coming like it's a picnic, like, 'Let's go to Disneyland.'"
In April 2018, the Trump administration rolled out its "zero-tolerance" policy, promising to prosecute all people found crossing the border illegally. When families were caught, the parents went to jail while their children ended up in detention centers and, in some cases, foster care.
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Senior administration officials told CNN that over the last four months, Trump pressured outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to separate families, even those who came through legal ports of entry to claim asylum. The officials said Nielsen told him the zero-tolerance policy was blocked by a federal court and could not be reinstated, while White House staffers emphasized that public opinion is not on Trump's side. "He just wants to separate families," one senior administration official said.
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