“I’ll be signing something in a little while that’s going to do that,” Trump said on Wednesday morning. “I’ll be doing something that’s somewhat preemptive and ultimately will be matched by legislation I’m sure.”
The “something” is an executive order to keep families together in immigration detention facilities, which Trump signed on Wednesday before departing for his scheduled trip to Minnesota.
The current practice of housing children at facilities run by the Department of Health and Human Services stems from a 1997 Flores settlement, under which the Clinton administration agreed not to hold children in immigration jails for more than 20 days. Subsequent administrations chose to implement that law by releasing the families into the US with a promise they would appear before immigration courts. In most cases, that would never happen.
“We’re going to keep families together, but we have to keep our borders strong,”Trump said.
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