My colleague @EliseFoley explains:http://bit.ly/2lb56KE
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Paul Ryan’s claim that family separations at the border stem from a court ruling, rather than White House policy, is either a bald-faced lie or evidence of vast incompetence. (1/many)
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And I’m going to pile on, because I’m seeing Ryan’s assertion reflexively quoted without enough examination. But it’s utter nonsense and Paul Ryan needs to get called out every time he says it.
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I’ve covered immigration for a while now and I’m used to seeing dishonest talking points come and go. But this is among the worst. It’s obviously wrong and conceived to exculpate the Trump administration which ***publicly announced this policy*** last month.
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Ryan says the family separations stem from a “court ruling.” He didn’t say which, but
@EliseFoley confirms he’s referring to the Flores Settlement. Let’s take a closer look.Show this thread -
The Flores Settlement dates from 1997 and partly determines how child migrants can be detained. In 2015, U.S. District Judge Dolly Gee found the Obama administration in violation for locking kids up in family detention centers indefinitely.
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The result was that family detention centers turned into very expensive holding centers. Most families (generally mothers traveling with kids) must be released within three weeks, per the court order.
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On appeal, the 9th circuit ruled that the Flores ruling applied only to the kids, not necessarily to the parents -- though mothers may be released with the kids.
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The Obama administration did not respond by systematically separating the families. Typically, they released the mothers with the kids. So family separation as a matter of policy is a Trump innovation.
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Ryan doesn’t want Republicans to own it. He’s not alone. Here’s Ted Cruz with a similarly nonsensical line a few days ago.https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/06/11/ted-cruz-defends-family-separation-complaints-trump-border-crackdown-persist …
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Flores isn’t about jailing parents. It’s about immigrant detention. It’s just normal policy not to jail kids when their parents get charged. That these words would escape the mouth of an attorney is a reflection of how poorly thought out this talking point is.pic.twitter.com/SDzLz4kLRt
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Here’s another flagrant misinterpretation of the Flores ruling, this time from the National Review.http://bit.ly/2laZosi
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This is not what the 9th circuit held. The mothers can be released from family detention along with the kids. It’s up to DHS. And prior to Trump, that’s what typically happened.pic.twitter.com/Psuujluyn7
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It’s no secret that family separation is a Trump policy. As DHS Secretary, John Kelly openly discussed last year that he was considering splitting up families to deter asylum-seeking migrants. https://cnn.it/2laVsHW
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Then the Trump admin started doing so -- quietly at first. See trailblazing reporting from
@LomiKriel http://bit.ly/2KGhCNY and@itscaitlinhd https://nyti.ms/2laSbJ2Show this thread -
Finally, last month Sessions announced DHS would refer 100 percent of illegal crossings for prosecution, effectively routing mothers into jails, which makes their children unaccompanied minors who instead move through the civil system.http://bit.ly/2kOZAxe
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So did Flores force the Trump administration’s hand to separate families? Absolutely not. There is no factual basis to support that claim. In nearly two decades, systematic family separations did not result from Flores. It took Trump to make that happen.
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Family separations at the border owe entirely to a White House policy choice. So if Ryan wants to blame the courts, the most charitable explanation is that he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. The other possibility is that he’s lying through his teeth. It's one or the other.
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End of conversation
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