Zero-Tolerance at the Border Loses its Teeth as GOP Struggles to Reform Immigration Policy
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WASHINGTON – The Trump administration has scaled back a key element of its zero-tolerance immigration policy.
Customs and border protection officials say President Donald Trump's order last week to stop splitting up families at the border required a temporary halt to prosecuting parents and guardians unless they had a criminal history.
Meanwhile, the president continues to call for immediate deportation, saying that immigrants who cross the border illegally should be turned around to return to their home, not afforded due process.
"Hiring many thousands of judges, and going through a long and complicated legal process, is not the way to go - will always be dysfunctional. People must simply be stopped at the Border and told they cannot come into the U.S. illegally. Children brought back to their country......" the president tweeted.
Hiring manythousands of judges, and going through a long and complicated legal process, is not the way to go - will always be disfunctional. People must simply be stopped at the Border and told they cannot come into the U.S. illegally. Children brought back to their country......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018
"And we must continue to BUILD THE WALL," he added.
....If this is done, illegal immigration will be stopped in it’s tracks - and at very little, by comparison, cost. This is the only real answer - and we must continue to BUILD THE WALL!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2018
Trump is asking Congress for a permanent solution as the US is running out of resources to keep families together.
Republicans worked through the weekend on a compromise bill that would finance the president's $25 billion wall along the US border with Mexico.
It also keeps government agencies from taking migrant children away from detained parents and creates a path to citizenship for so-called "Dreamers" – illegal immigrants brought to the US when they were young.
The deal is the product of weeks of bargaining between party conservatives and moderates.
However, the two sides have yet to cobble together a majority to pass the legislation.
No Democrats support it. A vote is scheduled for this evening.
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