Trump says he's 'not looking' to reinstate family separation policy at the border

(Image credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images)

last updated 10 April 2019

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.'"

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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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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.

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