The New York Times reports:
The five U.S. attorneys along the border with Mexico, including three appointed by President Trump, recoiled in May 2018 against an order to prosecute all undocumented immigrants even if it meant separating children from their parents. They told top Justice Department officials they were “deeply concerned” about the children’s welfare.
But the attorney general at the time, Jeff Sessions, made it clear what Mr. Trump wanted on a conference call later that afternoon, according to a two-year inquiry by the Justice Department’s inspector general into Mr. Trump’s “zero tolerance” family separation policy.
“We need to take away children,” Mr. Sessions told the prosecutors, according to participants’ notes. One added in shorthand: “If care about kids, don’t bring them in. Won’t give amnesty to people with kids.” Rod J. Rosenstein, then the deputy attorney general, went even further in a second call about a week later, telling the five prosecutors that it did not matter how young the children were.
Read the full article.
NEW: “We need to take away children,” AG Sessions told prosecutors, according to a draft DOJ IG report. That statement contradicts Sessions’ previous claim that “we never really intended” to separate children. w/@shearm @ktbenner https://t.co/938OvsSuus
— Michael S. Schmidt (@nytmike) October 6, 2020
What else is there to talk about after reading this?
‘We need to take away children’: Bombshell report alleges former AG Jeff Sessions and ex-deputy AG Rod Rosenstein were aggressively in favor of separating migrant families at the US-Mexico border https://t.co/AalfWryEwm
— Don Winslow (@donwinslow) October 7, 2020
Donald Trump, aided and abetted by Stephen Miller, Jeff Sessions, and Rod Rosenstein, ripped thousands of children, including infants and toddlers, from their parents. Then they put them in cages. Over a hundred are still alone. At least six have died. #VOTE #BidenHarris2020
— Mary L Trump (@MaryLTrump) October 7, 2020
Absolutely no words. I resigned the night before Trump was inaugurated, in large part over concerns about how immigration laws would be enforced under Sessions (his rumored choice to be AG at that point) & not wanting to stick around for that, but this is truly unfathomable. https://t.co/xIBymq5dd4
— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) October 7, 2020
Send him to The Hague. https://t.co/ZObfolMjMa
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) October 6, 2020