Donald Trump’s pick to replace the attorney general who formally announced the administration’s family separation policy claimed during his Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday that he’s not familiar with the humanitarian disaster that earned his prospective employer international condemnation.
Asked by Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois if he agreed with the barbaric “zero tolerance” policy, attorney general nominee William Barr claimed that "well, I'm not sure I know all the details because one of the disadvantages I have is I'm not in the Department and don't really have the same backing I did in terms of information I had last time.”
Really? Because plenty of us could fill you in—even though we’re not part of the administration, either. For example, we could tell you that Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III formally announced the policy in spring 2018, even though officials had been “piloting” it months before.
“When the officers separated them,” the American Civil Liberties (ACLU) said about a family of asylum seekers torn apart in November 2017, “Ms. L. could hear her daughter in the next room screaming that she did not want to be taken away from her mother. No one explained why her daughter was being taken away, where she was being taken, or when she would see her child again.”
We could tell you that at least 2,500 children were stolen from the arms of parents like Mrs. L—many of them also asylum seekers—and thrown into children’s detention centers run by a “non-profit” whose workers were later arrested and charged with crimes like molestation.
We could also tell you that the administration returned most of these children only because they had to. But despite Judge Dana Sabraw’s court order (included the judge’s name there for your research, Bill), the administration continues to hold some children in U.S. custody. Following the law is only for the little people, apparently.
There are already signs that Barr, if confirmed, will “be a loyal foot soldier for Trump’s aggressive immigration agenda,” and as attorney general, he would wield vast power over immigration courts (though Sessions was not always successful in his hateful agenda). He may feign unfamiliarity with them but by joining this administration, he endorses the policies. So of course he agrees with family separation. He’s just not going to say it.
Wednesday, January 16, marks 174 days past the judge’s deadline. Family separation remains a crisis.