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Trump's Executive Order Means He Won't Separate Families at the Border, but He's Still Detaining Children


After days of public outcry around the Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy that allowed for the separation of immigrant children from their parents at the border, President Trump signed an executive order that ends that separation.

However, the “zero-tolerance” policy that created the recent crisis remains.

“We are keeping families together and this will solve that problem. At the same time we are keeping a very powerful border and it continues to be a zero tolerance, we have zero tolerance for people that enter our country illegally,” Trump told the White House pool reporters present in the Oval Office, per CBS News.

“I didn’t like sight or the feeling of families being separated,” Trump said.

The executive order notes that it is “the policy of this Administration to rigorously enforce our immigration laws” and that they will initiate proceedings to enforce laws about “improper entry.” But this section also allows for families to be held together during the prosecution process: “It is also the policy of this Administration to maintain family unity, including by detaining alien families together where appropriate and consistent with law and available resources.”

The order further stated, “It is unfortunate that Congress’s failure to act and court orders have put the Administration in the position of separating alien families to effectively enforce the law.”

It is important to note, that according to experts who spoke with Glamour, the separation policy is not a law. It was also up to Trump himself to make the call on ending the family separations.

Earlier today, the New York Times reported that sources close to the president said he believes his immigration policies are “appropriate and necessary,” but that he was frustrated by the criticism he’d been receiving.

Many news outlets report that there could be legal battles ahead for this order due to a 1997 consent decree from a federal court, called the Flores settlement, that says children can be detained for only 20 days, even if they are with their parents.

It is unclear at this time what will happen to the families that are currently separated and being held in detention facilities—or how long detained families can be held.

Trump spoke earlier this morning about the possibility of an executive order. “We’re meeting right now on immigration and we are very strong at the border, we’re very strong on security. We want security for our country,” he said at the White House. “The Republicans want security and insist on security for our country, and we will have that.”

ABC News reports that First Lady Melania Trump may have played a part in the president’s decision to sign the order. She has been pressuring her husband to end the child separation policy, according to a White House official. Their source also claims that Ivanka Trump has shown the president images of children in detention centers and urged him to end the policy.

As of Wednesday afternoon, she had not made any public statements on the issue, although she did tweet after the signing of the executive order.

We will update this story as new details around the policy and executive order emerge.

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Couple Makes Facebook History by Raising $5 Million for Separated Immigrant Families


The Trump administration’s “zero-tolerance” policy on immigration has drawn an outcry from people across the country, and many have wondered how to help families who have been separated at the border.

One couple—Charlotte and Dave Willner from the Bay Area—faced this same question before deciding to start a Facebook fundraiser to help immigrant and refugee families access legal services in Texas. Now, that campaign has collected more than $5 million, becoming the largest single fundraiser on Facebook in history.

According to the New York Times, the Willners were moved to action by an image of a baby crying as her mother was held at the border. They set a goal of raising $1,500 for the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, or Raices, a nonprofit organization that provides low-cost legal defense to people from immigrant and refugee communities. Donations began pouring in and, at one point, NBC News reports that it was collecting $4,000 per minute.

“When we look at the faces of these children, we can’t help but see our own children’s faces,” Ms. Willner told The Mercury News, according to the Times.

Jonathan Ryan, the executive director of Raices, told the Times that the organization plans to hire and fund training for volunteer lawyers, who will join the ranks of the nonprofit’s 50 lawyers on staff. In addition to legal representation, the funds will also go toward paying bonds so that parents can be released from detention centers.

The Willner’s fundraiser is just one way to help families who have been separated at the border. You can also sign up to volunteer with Raices here, or support other organizations that provide legal aid, including Arizona’s Florence Project and Refugee Rights Project. The Young Center for Immigrant Children’s Rights and Kids In Need Of Defense (KIND) work on the rights of children caught in immigration proceedings.

The organization ActBlue has also compiled a list of organizations here. Other ways of assisting including buying essentials, like baby wipes and soap, for children. Baby2Baby and KIND have set up a registry through Target here.

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Here Are the Facts About Trump’s ‘Zero Tolerance’ Immigration Policy



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All 5 Living First Ladies Have Spoken out About Trump Separating Immigrant Families at the Border


All five living first ladies have officially weighed in on the Trump immigration policy of separating undocumented children and their parents at the border.

On Sunday, former First Lady Laura Bush published a heartfelt Washington Post op-ed about the policy and Melania Trump released a statement saying that she “hates to see children separated from their families.” Yesterday, Michelle Obama, Hillary Clinton, and Rosalynn Carter also spoke up, expressing their views on Twitter.

As Time reported, Carter released a statement that was tweeted by The Carter Center, the non-profit organization she started with her husband Jimmy Carter. In the message, she recounted her own experiences working with refugees as first lady and called out the current administration’s policies.

“When I was first lady, I worked to call attention to the plight of refugees fleeing Cambodia for Thailand, I visited Thailand and witnessed firsthand the trauma of parents and children separated by circumstance beyond their control,” Carter said. “The practice and policy today of removing children from their parents’ care at our border with Mexico is disgraceful and a shame to our country.”

Michelle Obama and Hillary Clinton also expressed their views on Twitter. Obama retweeted a link to Bush’s Washington Post op-ed, writing, “Sometimes truth transcends party.” Clinton also shared her thoughts through a tweet and said, “What’s happening to families at the border right now is a humanitarian crisis. Every parent who has ever held a child in their arms, every human being with a sense of compassion and decency, should be outraged.”

In her op-ed, Bush wrote that the government “should not be in the business of warehousing children in converted box stores or making plans to place them in tent cities in the desert outside of El Paso.” She also said, “I appreciate the need to enforce and protect our international boundaries, but this zero-tolerance policy is cruel. It is immoral. And it breaks my heart.”

Melania Trump shared in her statement that she “hopes both sides of the aisle can finally come together to achieve successful immigration reform.”

The policy of forcible separations has come under fire as videos and stories have emerged, showing children in detention centers. Protests and demonstrations have erupted in cities across the country, according to CNN.

Calls for Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to resign are pouring out of Washington after a Monday evening White House press briefing, where the administration doubled down on the zero tolerance policy.

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