What did Donald Trump claim about immigration on 16 May 2018?
Donald Trump, President of the United States ·
But those are the bad laws that the Democrats gave us. We have to break up families. The Democrats gave us that law.
No law required separating families. Separations came from the administration's own zero tolerance policy; DHS began referring parents for prosecution on May 4, 2018, and a presidential executive order ended it on June 20, 2018, with no change in law.
The Justice Department Inspector General found that since at least 1992 immigration officials had largely avoided separating families by not prosecuting parents, that on May 4, 2018, with the urging of Attorney General Sessions, DHS changed its policy and began referring family unit adults for prosecution, and that the zero tolerance policy remained unchanged until a presidential Executive Order on June 20, 2018 (DOJ Office of the Inspector General, Report 21-028, January 2021).
Claim vs. the record · Immigration
Added
The claim
- Date
- Where
- Remarks at a California Sanctuary State Roundtable in the Cabinet Room of the White House.
The record
Primary source (audit/certified result)