(Image source from: Washington Post)
United States President Donald Trump's executive order on Wednesday to halt family separations unleashed confusion in Washington and at the Mexico border, as United States Customs and Border Protection said it would stop referring such cases for prosecution and migrant parents arrived at courthouses in Texas and Arizona wearing handcuffs lone to be led away without facing charges.
Related content: Trump Signs Executive Order to End Family Separations at U.S. Border
A senior Customs and Border Protection official told the media source that the agency would freeze criminal referrals for migrant parents who cross illicitly with children, Justice Department officials insisted that their "zero tolerance" policy remained in force and that U.S. attorneys would proceed to prosecute those entering the United States unlawfully.
On Capitol Hill, a hard-line immigration bill failed to pass and a key vote on a more moderate version of the legislation was postponed. The Pentagon, meanwhile, agreed to house up to 20,000 unaccompanied migrant children on military bases in approaching months.
Despite the current outcry over the separation of more than 2,300 migrant children from their parents since May 5, Trump administration officials gave no statement that the families would be swiftly reunited.
In scenes evocative of the botched "Muslim ban" in the early days of the Trump presidency, federal agencies on Thursday were largely left to construe the abrupt changes ordered by the White House the day before and figure out how to implement them. A family separation system that had been planned and tested over several months vanished at the president's pen, with no stated plan to reverse its effects.
Administration officials held a meeting on Thursday evening to grapple with the conflicting understandings of what the executive order was meant to do.
People familiar with the discussions said the president had indicated his chief goal was to diminish the public controversy surrounding separated families. Within the administration, however, the two main agencies tasked with following the order interpreted it very differently. The Justice Department filed court papers seeking permission from a judge to detain families together, Customs and Border Protection officials initially decided the order meant adults.
"We're suspending prosecutions of adults who are members of family units until Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can accelerate resource capability to allow us to maintain custody," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to explain how the agency has interpreted and implemented Trump's order apprehended with children should be released.
A Justice Department representative said that prosecutions would continue but that the decision to refer migrants for criminal charges after illegal crossings rests with the U.S. Border Patrol.
By Sowmya Sangam
