Border Patrol Will Temporarily Stop Detaining Migrating Families Due To Overwhelming Workload

-blogged by @theRealAlexisDanielle ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has announced that it will halt the detention of adults who attempt to cross the American border illegally with children, because of an overdrawn workload. Instead, those adults will be issued a court summons and sent on their way. 

Ultimately, the U.S. was detaining more people than the centers and workers could handle, leaving its agents unable to process those detained. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

“It’s a huge challenge operationally for our agents,” U.S. Southern Border Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said.

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Officials have described the situation as “kids waiting in cage-like holding cells, while their moms and dads go to court in shackles.” 

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The move comes in spite of President Donald Trump’s “Zero Tolerance” border control policy, which promised to detain and prosecute every immigrant, including those with children. 

After drawing criticism from the public, Trump signed an executive order that would keep families together during detention. 

According to McAleenan, the border control operation that Obama ran was a much better way to handle things from the beginning. 

“A much better system would be to keep families together through their immigration proceedings,” McAleenan said. “That’s what the Obama administration did in 2014. That’s what the President has asked Congress to help us do now.”