President Trump’s “zero tolerance” policy at the southern border — which resulted in the forced separation of thousands of children from their parents — did little to deter migrant families from trying to enter the US, new government arrest data showed.
The number of families rounded up along the Mexican border remained nearly unchanged from June to July, according to numbers released Wednesday, the Washington Post reported.
American border agents busted 9,258 “family units” along the southwest border last month, down slightly from 9,434 in June and 9,485 in May, the paper reported.
Team Trump had said the surge of parents crossing into the US illegally with children in the spring justified its “zero tolerance” stance against illegal immigration, which led to more than 2,500 kids being taken from family members between May 5 and June 20.
Global outrage forced Trump to reverse course, but as many as 500 kids still remain in US detention facilities.
The administration, including immigration hardliners such as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and adviser Stephen Miller, had argued that the harsh policy would make migrant families think twice before crossing the border illegally with children.
And Trump himself blamed the migrant families for the separations.
But the July arrest totals released Wednesday were evidence that the separations weren’t much of a deterrent.
A senior official at the Department of Homeland Security told the paper that court rulings against Trump’s policy were to blame for the continued family migration.
“The fact that we’re unable to detain family units is attracting more people to cross as family groups,” the official said.
In total, border guards nabbed 39,953 migrants along the border in July, down from 42,838 in June.
Those figures were significantly lower than the 50,000 or more arrests made each month in March, April and May, an increase that left Trump raging at Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen.
Illegal migration normally increases in spring before falling during the summer when temperatures spike, making the already arduous journey even more fraught with danger, the paper said.
