The man who previously ran the department Donald Trump is now using to separate thousands of migrant families tore the president to shreds on Tuesday for repeatedly lying about Barack Obama’s record on immigration.
In an interview with MSNBC’s Ari Melber, former acting ICE Director John Sandweg said Trump’s claim that he ended family separation “categorically false.”
“There was no family separation under the Obama administration,” Sandweg said. “In fact, the policy was the exact opposite.”
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Former ICE director says Trump’s claim that he inherited the family separation policy from Barack Obama is “categorically false.” #ctl #p2 pic.twitter.com/jyvh5PVIzw
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) June 25, 2019
Sandweg said:
Ari, that’s categorically false. There was no family separation under the Obama administration. In fact, the policy was the exact opposite. Do everything we can to keep families together to the point where we even paroled back into the United States parents so they could reclaim their children. I don’t know why he keeps saying that. It is categorically false.
Trump’s family separation policy never ended
Last year, the Trump administration said they were backing off their zero-tolerance family separation policy after it drew fierce bipartisan opposition. It was a policy that former attorney general Jeff Sessions announced and Trump now claims he inherited from Barack Obama.
The problem is, despite the administration’s claim that they have halted their family separation policy, Democratic Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas said this week that it has never ended.
Children are still getting ripped from their parents and held in detention centers without beds, soap or toothpaste. Worse is that Republican lawmakers continue to defend this president’s immigration policies either by blaming migrant families or suggesting that the conditions aren’t as bad as they’re reported to be.
At the end of the day, the border policy enacted by this president is inhumane and un-American. It will forever be a stain on this administration and this country.
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Sean Colarossi currently resides in Cleveland, Ohio. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in Journalism from the University of Massachusetts Amherst and was an organizing fellow for both of President Obama’s presidential campaigns. He also worked with Planned Parenthood as an Affordable Care Act Outreach Organizer in 2014, helping northeast Ohio residents obtain health insurance coverage.
