Question in the title.
How were families crossing the border into the US handled before President Trump’s no tolerance policy?
Generally speaking they were housed together, partly because it’s simply cheaper that way. However, those facilities may or may not have had amenities designed for children. The stated reason for the new policy is that children require special care, including different food, air conditioning, diapers, etc. Whether they are in fact getting it is not clear, although the system has obviously been overwhelmed in the short run.
Small numbers of families were separated for various individual reasons but not as part of an overarching policy.
Yes, just not nearly as much, because “Obama generally refrained from prosecution in cases involving adults who crossed the border with their kids”.
Cite - PolitiFact | No, Donald Trump’s separation of immigrant families was not Barack Obama’s policy
Most families, especially first-time crossers or those seeking asylum were not prosecuted for the misdemeanor of crossing the border. They would be put into the immigration process, but at least one parent would almost always be released to await further proceedings.
ICE had various programs for monitoring them. One program had a 99% return of appearance rate. Trump ended that program.
One recent news story accused Obama of putting kids in detention facilities too. Politicians and some “news” channels like to exploit the short-term memory of the general public. Recall that about 4 or 5 years ago there was a flood of *unaccompanied *minors, probably in reaction to the suggestion that minors would get citizenship. It’s hard to keep children with their parents when they are not with their parents.
There’s a reason why the trial oath says “the truth, the *whole *truth…”
My understanding from the recent news was that before Trump’s zero tolerance policy, the practice was that where illegal border crossers were caught together with children, both parents and children would be released after a period of 20 days max. Which is, of course, unsatisfactory because it means people who do not have a right to be within the United States are released into the United States, which sets incentives for exactly the situation that is deemed undesirable (having people cross the border illegally with children). Whcih illustrates that this is really a dilemma because any other conceivable options (detaining the parents together with the children in an adult detention facility, or separating parents from children) is alos unsatisfactory.
How many illegal immigrants are Mexican? I would think they could just be put on a bus and driven back safely across the border.
I don’t know who maintains good statistics, but my understanding is that lately many of them are coming from Central American countries like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras.
The majority are not Mexican. Most of the people currently crossing at the southern border are from elsewhere in Latin America, principally the “northern triangle”–El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.