In 2018, the Justice Department adopted a zero tolerance policy to prosecute every adult who crossed the southern border without authorization. Because children cannot be held in criminal custody, parents and children were separated, often with no system to reunite them. A pilot program had begun in El Paso in 2017.
After public outcry, President Trump signed an executive order ending most separations in June 2018. Days later, a federal judge in Ms. L. v. ICE ordered the government to reunite families. Many parents had already been deported without their children. A 2023 settlement covered an estimated 4,500 to 5,000 children and restricted future separations.
The government has separated families before. Enslaved families were sold apart. Native American children were taken to boarding schools. Child welfare systems today remove Black and Native children from their homes at disproportionate rates.