President Trump’s misleading spin on the border crisis

Border facilities “are much better than they were under President Obama by far. … But, I am very concerned. It’s in much better shape than it ever was. A lot of these young children come from places that you don’t even want to know about. The way they’ve lived, the way they’ve been, the poverty that they’ve grown up in.”

— President Trump, in remarks at the White House, June 25

In 2014, President Barack Obama faced criticism for the way he handled an influx of unaccompanied minors crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. Border Patrol holding facilities became dangerously overcrowded. That led to concerning conditions for children waiting to be transferred to longer-term shelters run by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, part of the Department of Health and Human Services.

The 1997 Flores Settlement Agreement requires a basic standard of care for children in federal immigration custody, including “safe and sanitary” conditions and a 72-hour limit on stays in Border Patrol holding facilities.

Children were spending longer than 72 hours in facilities, due to the backup in the system, and the American Civil Liberties Union ultimately filed a lawsuit in 2015, alleging Border Patrol facilities held migrants in “inhumane and punitive conditions,” violating U.S. law.

View the complete November 13 article by Elyse Samuels on The Washington Post website here.