DOJ IG releases report on the zero tolerance policy -- aka the family separation policy

[Nevilledog]

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Hamed Aleaziz
@Haleaziz
NEW: DOJ IG releases report on the zero tolerance policy -- aka the family separation policy -- finding that the Attorney General was the driving force behind it, failed to prepare for it, and that Jeff Sessions knew it would lead to children being separated from their fams.
10:00 AM · Jan 14, 2021

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NEW: DOJ IG releases report on the zero tolerance policy -- aka the family separation policy -- finding that the Attorney General was the driving force behind it, failed to prepare for it, and that Jeff Sessions knew it would lead to children being separated from their fams.

Notes from US Attorneys across the country on a call that Jeff Sessions held in May 2018.

“we need to take away children; if care about kids, don’t bring them in; won’t give amnesty to kids; to people with kids” (strikethrough in original)."

"We concluded that the Department’s single-minded
focus on increasing immigration prosecutions came at the
expense of careful and appropriate consideration of the impact of family unit prosecutions and child separations."

Link to the report. It is INSANE how much more thorough the DOJ IG is as opposed to the DHS IG. The reports don't even compare.

oig.justice.gov/reports/review…
Report confirms the reporting of @shearm @ktbenner @nytmike from last year:
DOJ official in TX emailed concerns about the pilot program:

"We have now heard of us taking breast feeding defendant moms away from their infants, I did not believe this until I looked @ the duty log & saw the fact we had accepted prosecution on moms with one and two year olds"

"The next issue is that these parents are asking for the whereabouts of their children and they can’t get a

response, the courts are turning to us for help with providing contact information to defense counsel."

Rod Rosenstein told the OIG "that he did not think he saw the draft of the policy before it was issued on April 6 and that zero tolerance was 'just [an issue] that the AG
and his staff were intimately involved in.'"

Crazy. Prosecutors didn't know the policy would include families.

"USAOs did not understand the zero tolerance
policy to apply to family units & US Attorneys expressed surprise when they learned in early May 2018 that DHS would begin referring family unit adults for prosecution"

DOJ didn't communicate with HHS, the government agency that took custody of children who had been separated;

"we did not find evidence that DOJ leadership had discussions about the zero tolerance policy or family separations with HHS prior to the announcement."