Washington, DC - Wednesday, Trump unveiled a plan to scrap the 20-day limit on keeping migrant kids in detention. The cap, in effect since 2015 and part of the 1997 Flores consent decree, set up a Catch-22: If kids can’t be held more than 20 days, and no one wants to separate them from their parents (or other adults they come with), then the only option is to release the whole family.
That creates an enormous incentive for adult migrants to bring kids along, even if the journey puts them in danger. And it makes America’s immigration system unworkable.
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[C]learly, there’s a problem: Almost 475,000 families crossed the border in the last 10 months, notes Homeland Security Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan.
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Democrats like Schumer would prefer no detentions at all - just let migrants come right in. But Trump is offering a humane way to, as McAleenan put it, enforce laws Congress passed. And ensure some order to the immigration process.
