Trump administration weighs new family separation effort at border

We’ve gone from “there is no policy” to “what about this one?”

‘The Trump administration is considering a new family separation policy. Stephen Miller is determined to act, arguing that separating kids from their parents deters illegal border crossings.’

‘One option under consideration is for the government to detain asylum-seeking families together for up to 20 days, then give parents a choice — stay in family detention with their child for months or years as their immigration case proceeds, or allow children to be taken to a government shelter so other relatives or guardians can seek custody.’

AP investigation: Deported parents may lose kids to adoption

‘As the deportees were led off the plane onto the steamy San Salvador tarmac, an anguished Araceli Ramos Bonilla burst into tears, her face contorted with pain: “They want to steal my daughter!”

It had been 10 weeks since Ramos had last held her 2-year-old, Alexa. Ten weeks since she was arrested crossing the border into Texas and U.S. immigration authorities seized her daughter and told her she would never see the girl again.’

Exclusive: With more immigrant children in detention, HHS cuts funds for other programs — like cancer research

‘The Department of Health and Human Services is diverting millions of dollars in funding from a number of programs, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health, to pay for housing for the growing population of detained immigrant children.’

U.S. to sharply limit refugee flows to 30,000 in 2019

‘U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Monday the United States would cap the number of refugees allowed into the country at 30,000 for fiscal-year 2019, a sharp drop from a limit of 45,000 it set for 2018.’

US refugee cap:

2017: 110,000
2018: 45,000 (previous record low)
2019: 30,000 (new record low)