Janet Napolitano, former Homeland Security chief, explains why she said no to family separation
Source: LATimes
By Teresa Watanabe
Jun 19, 2018 | 6:15 PM
...................... During that time, she says, she considered separating parents from their children as they were processed on charges of illegally entering the United States. But she says she quickly rejected that option, which the Trump administration now embraces.
What do you think of the Trump policy of family separation?
I think it is bad policy. It is not a function of law and it is inconsistent with our values. ........................
...............................This can be undone by the president with a phone call to the attorney general or the secretary of Homeland Security saying, ‘Let’s stop this.’”
Did the option of separating families come up while you were Homeland Security secretary?
Yes it did. We were dealing with how do we create a safe and secure border area. Would a change in how we handled these first-time migrants who were picked up … have any impact? As you work it through and you realize the difference between handling these as civil deportation matters as opposed to criminal prosecution matters, it was pretty clear off the bat that this would not be a good idea.
Why not?
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We were very clear that on immigration enforcement, we would … prioritize the prosecution and deportation of those who committed serious crimes, those who were known gang members, those who were known security risks. One of the things that the current administration did shortly after they came in was to rewrite those priorities so that basically there are no priorities. Everybody's treated the same. Everybody who's caught gets criminally prosecuted, not just deported, which is where the separation of children and parents happens.
The Obama administration also detained families, though it did not separate them. Did that work as a deterrent?
No, and it was stopped after a pretty short period of time. Instead what they did was pursue immigration-court remedies so that parents would be given a return date to immigration court to handle their deportation along with their children........................................ So the family detention idea didn't last very long, as I recall.
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Read more: http://www.latimes.com/local/education/higher-ed/la-me-napolitano-family-separation-20180619-story.html
@SecNielsen could learn a lot if she listened to Janet Napolitano --but since she worked for Obama, she will be immediately rejected by trump admin!!
http://www.latimes.com/local/education/higher-ed/la-me-napolitano-family-separation-20180619-story.html
Janet Napolitano, former Homeland Security chief, explains why she said no to family separation
University of California President Janet Napolitano served as U.S. Homeland Security secretary in the Obama administration (Marcio Jose Sanchez / AP)
University of California President Janet Napolitano served as U.S. Homeland Security secretary for President Obama from 2009 to 2013.
