Sessions: Border crackdown could separate parents, children

Human rights groups are blasting a Monday announcement by Attorney General Jeff Sessions that immigrant families may be separated under a “zero-tolerance” policy toward people who enter the country illegally. U.S. Border Patrol agents will refer parents for prosecution, Sessions warned, and place children under the care of the Department of Health and Human Services: “We don’t want to separate families, but we don’t want families to come to the border illegally and attempt to enter into this country improperly. The parents are subject to prosecution while children may not be. So, if we do our duty and prosecute those cases, then children inevitably for a period of time might be in different conditions.” Adults crossing the border illegally for the first time could face up to six months in custody, although such lengthy detentions are rare. Repeat offenders could face up to two years in jail. Rights groups called the policy unnecessarily cruel. “Criminalizing and stigmatizing parents who are only trying to keep their children from harm and give them a safe upbringing will cause untold damage to thousands of traumatized families who have already given up everything to flee terrible circumstances in their home countries,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Amnesty International’s Americas director.