OIG-20-38-Jun 12, 2020: During 2019…”resulting in 851,508 Border Patrol apprehensions and contributing to what senior U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials described as an “unprecedented border security and humanitarian crisis.’…CBP struggled to meet detention standards. Specifically, several Border Patrol stations we visited exceeded their maximum capacity. Although Border Patrol established temporary holding facilities to alleviate overcrowding, it struggled to limit detention to the 72 hours generally permitted, as options for transferring detainees out of CBP custody to long-term facilities were limited…”
OIG-20-35-May 29, 2020 - “had separated 60 asylum-seeking families between May 6 and July 9, 2018, despite CBP’s claim that it had separated only 7 such families. More than half of those separations were based solely on the asylum-seeking parents’ prior non-violent immigration violations, which appeared to be inconsistent with official DHS public messaging. After a June 27, 2018 court ruling…”
OIG-20-06-Nov 27, 2019: “CBP did not address known IT deficiencies before the Zero Tolerance Policy was implemented in May 2018. DHS also did not provide adequate guidance to personnel responsible for executing the policy. Because of the IT deficiencies, we could not confirm the total number of families DHS separated during the Zero Tolerance period. DHS estimated Border Patrol agents separated 3,014 children from their families while the policy was in place. DHS also estimated it completed 2,155 reunifications, although this effort continued on for seven months beyond the July 2018 deadline for reunifying children with their parents…”
OIG-18-84-Sept 27, 2018: Special Review - Initial Observations Regarding Family Separation Issues Under the Zero Tolerance Policy. During Zero Tolerance; “CBP also held alien children separated from their parents for extended periods in facilities intended solely for short-term detention.
DHS also struggled to identify, track, and reunify families separated under Zero Tolerance due to limitations with its information technology systems, including a lack of integration between systems.
Finally, DHS provided inconsistent information to aliens who arrived with children during Zero Tolerance, which resulted in some parents not understanding that they would be separated from their children, and being unable to communicate with their children”
Stop Defending Rod Rosenstein as some archipelago of “ethical” he’s not..
The Department of Justice,specifically then Attorney General Jeff Sessions and top advisors, “failed to effectively prepare for, or manage, the implementation of the zero tolerance policy.”
AG Sessions and numerous senior DOJ staff: “ignored dire warning signs from a 2017 child separation pilot program in western Texas, failing to heed advice from their own U.S. Attorneys about widespread problems that arose during those earlier separations—the same problems that occurred during the 2018 Zero Tolerance Policy Separations.”
Border Patrol ignored directives from the U.S. Attorneys, prompting one prosecutor to write: “We have now heard of us taking breast feeding defendant moms away from their infants, I did not believe this until I looked at the duty log and saw the fact we had accepted prosecution on [sic] moms with one and two year olds.”
Gene Hamilton, a top Sessions advisor, requested and received that memo1 from “the then DHS Chief of Staff.” Chad Wolf, who numerous courts found he was illegally serving as the Acting Secretary of Homeland Security, but was the DHS Acting Chief of Staff at that time of implementation of Trump/Sessions Zero Tolerance Policy
the DOJ-OIG also concluded; “…Sessions and his top advisors were a ‘driving force’ to push for mass child separations at the border. Sessions was a key advocate for separating families, and came to a May 3 White House meeting with talking points that touted the 2017 initiative while ignoring its widespread problems: “The Western District of Texas employed a pilot program [the El Paso Initiative] that involved the prosecution of adults in family units last fall-and it worked.”
U.S. Attorneys across the southwest border repeatedly told Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and their top advisors that they were not prepared to handle the surge of prosecutions of parents arriving with children. Sessions ignored their pleas for help, stating on a May 11, 2018 call: “We need to take away children.”
DOJ-OIG JAN 2021 REPORT ZERO TOLERANCE POLICY
when numerous U.S. Attorneys refused to separate parents from very young children, Rosenstein 2told them, per a U.S. Attorney’s email to his staff, “we should NOT be categorically declining immigration prosecutions of adults in family units because of the age of a child…AG is clear: Prosecute parents if DHS decides to separate families; use your prosecutorial discretion w/r/t [with regard to] illness, language issues; no categorial decisions w/r/t [with regard to] age; fact-based decisions ok.”
DOJ-OIG Jan 2021 Report incorporated emails from DAG Rosenstein
May 24, 2021 DHS-OIG Report No: OIG-21-36
Nothing in the newly released DHS-OIG Report is surprising because much of the OIG report confirms numerous previous reports and findings.
“…confirmed that before July 12, 2018, migrant parents did not consistently have the opportunity to reunify with their children before removal…”
DHS and ICE have claimed that parents removed without their children chose to leave them behind, there was no policy or standard process requiring ICE officers to ascertain, document, or honor parents’ decisions regarding their children…
…July 2017, ICE removed at least 348 parents separated from their children without documenting…
ICE does not have any guidance on procedures requiring field offices to take particular steps before removing migrant parents….
…existing policy does not require ICE officers effecting parents’ removals to do any of the following:
-to ask whether parents want to bring their children back to the home country;
-to honor parents’ requests even when the parents express that they want to bring their children; or
-to document comprehensively matters relating to the separated children of detained parents.
The existing ICE policy also lacks any standardized forms or other processes for parents to request reunification with their children; prescribed methods for documenting any parent’s waiver of reunification…This policy void is particularly notable when compared to other ICE policies and procedures relating to detainees’ processing for removal….
I remember at the time I followed the Ms L v ICE case closely because I have a few friends who are social workers and they would reach out to me because of the things they witnessed. Because cruelty wasn’t a bug - it was the main feature of the Trump Administration of the heinous Zero Tolerance Policy… we are nearly THREE years post the June 2018 Court Order. And there are still hundreds of children who are still in our care/custody and have not been reunified with their parents. I wish I could simply retweet the countless threads but nope - wait hold on I found one thread archived
I do not think the actual human suffering and long term, possible permanent impact on these children should be something we ignore. What Trump, Sessions, Rosenstein, Neilson et al did was one of the most insidious crimes against humanity that I’ve witnessed. The intentional damage their actions caused hundreds of children is an indelible stain on Trump’s already stained legacy.
June 26, 2018 order prohibiting the Government from detaining most separated parents apart from their children, the Ms. L v. ICE court observed that ‘the unfortunate reality is that under the present system migrant children are not accounted for with the same efficiency and accuracy as property’….
The absence of prescribed removal procedures led to ICE’s dissimilar treatment of separated parents and inconsistent documentation of parents’ decisions…The timing of the parents’ removal played a major part in whether they had the opportunity to elect or waive reunification. ICE officers explained that early in the Zero Tolerance period, ICE did not typically try to ascertain or honor parents’ wishes with respect to bringing their children or leaving them in the United States.
ICE deported parents without children INTENTIONALLY…
For at least 348 separated parents removed without their children before July 12, 2018, ICE has no records demonstrating that they wanted to leave their children in the United States.
….some of ICE’s removals of parents without their children were intentional, and not just inadvertent incidents resulting from human error or inaccurate records.
December 20, 2018 before the House Oversight Committee (former) DHS Secretary Neilson stated:
“….Only to say that calling me a liar is fighting words. I'm not a liar, we've never had a policy for family separation."…addressing the mounting questions and criticisms of the inhumane “family separation policy” aka “zero tolerance policy 3” said, "would mean that any family that I found at a port of entry I would separate, it would mean that every single family that I found illegally crossing, we would separate. We did none of those."
You can read (former) DHS Secretary Nielsen’s written December 20, 2018 Congressional Testimony here
The March 2019 hearting can be viewed here and her written testimony can be found here. Representative Jackson Lee asked; “Can you independently make a decision in contrary to the president of the United States,"
To wit Sec Nielsen stated that she given president Trump "all the facts" and with respect to the "operational reality" at the Southwestern border. "It is an emergency. It is a dual crisis…”
Yet this terse exchange with Rep Rice and Nielsen’s refusal to answer basic yes or no questions was the beginning of the end.
The May 2021 DHS-OIG report concludes with the following finding of facts:
Before July 12, 2018, migrant parents did not consistently have the opportunity to be removed with their children because ICE had no clear guidance or procedure requiring officers to ascertain, document, or honor parents’ decisions regarding their children.
As a result, ICE removed at least 348 separated parents without documenting that those parents wanted to leave their children in the United States, and in some cases, removed parents without their children even after parents told ICE officers that they wanted their children to accompany them upon removal. Additionally, some ICE records have significant flaws, making it difficult to determine whether they truly represent an accurate record of a parent’s knowing, voluntary decision regarding their child.
Now some on Twitter are like “prosecute” former Secretary Nielsen - not only are tweets like that highly charged with QANON-for-the-Left Disinformation…they also prove that some on Twitter do not understand the basic workings of our Judicial System and/or the immunity offered to PAS employees like cabinet members. It’s called sovereign immunity…meaning Nielsen is largely immune from prosecution because her conduct was as the Secretary of DHS. Again I get the outrage but people on Twitter (once again) misleading their followers and trafficking in emotionally based tweets is a form of emotional terrorism simply for the “likes and retweets”
Again as much as I loathe what Neilsen. Sessions, Rosenstein and Trump did, she can’t be prosecuted for “alleged crimes” because of the sovereign immunity that’s afforded to her. On the flipside it’s possible the U.N. and/or ICC could charge her with “crimes against humanity” but that too is a very long shot. I for one am glad that the Biden Administration’s primary focus is to reunite the hundreds of children that the Trump administration purposefully orphaned simply because Trump enjoys being vicious and cruel.
However the QANON-for-the-Left unhinged conspiracy tweeters might make a better argument that Neilsen et al could be charged by the DOJ for lying to Congress - 18 U.S.C. §1001 but that would also require a criminal referral from the Chairman/woman of either the House OverSight or Homeland Security Committees and undoubtedly would require Madam Speaker Pelosi to approve. But understand this one inconvenient fact, any such criminal referral would be immediately argued as “political” and “an abuse of power” so keep this in mind when you read tweets like “arrest her now” or “prosecute Neilsen” because those kind of tweets are meant to illicit an emotional reaction. Whereas I try to be pragmatic and endeavor to give my readers the original documents and occasionally salty/spicy snar..
…again you can find the newly released DHS-OIG May 2021 Report
also make sure you read the Appendix A B C and C - mainly because it provides your with additional information about the report but for me the distribution list is ….
Look for a long time (especially on Twitter) I bristled at those who put Rod Rosenstein on a pedestal. I repeatedly stated one professional interaction I had with him while he was working in the Baltimore USAO. An administrative subpoena is NOT the same as a judicially authorized search and seizure warrant. He tried to convince one of our clients that it was, long story short he left empty handed.
He had the wrong “suspected terrorist” which was easily proven by using that person’s full name and DOB. But I do not regret being on the island by myself because if I tell you something…there’s a greater than 90% chance I’m telling you based on facts, direct interaction or a sufficient than normal preliminary research. Rod Rosenstein is not a “white knight” never has been - he’s always been the type to stab people in the back just to get ahead. Rosenstein was unapologetically instrumental in “ripping babies from mother’s breast as they were nursing” —Rosenstein could cure cancer and I’d still say he’s the least ethical person I’ve encountered. Because those are the facts and truth… reminder April 2020 Pegasus and NSO Group Q-Technology… -
those who continue to defend Rod Rosenstein- have you read the January 2021 DOJ-OIG report? Because if you had then I’d assume you’d know defending Rod is a zero sum game of complicit cruelty. Pull your head out and read the report specifically pages 12-16, 27, 29, 31 thru 39, 45 thru 51, especially pages 51 thru 64 https://oig.justice.gov/sites/default/files/reports/21-028_0.pdf
I have to heart this, when I really want to scream. Thank you for bringing the receipts!
Monsters just absolute pondscum muck licking chuds...may their next 1000 lives be filled with the horror of their living offenses.