The Atlantic

How Did the GOP Find Itself Separating Families?

The party of family values is now defending a government agency that is forcibly separating children from their parents.
Source: Jose Luis Gonzalez

In March of 2017, then-Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly spoke with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about a possible new initiative separating children from their parents at the border. “I would do almost anything to deter the people from Central America from getting on this very, very dangerous network that brings them up through Mexico to the United States … The vast majority of the young women are sexually abused,” he said.

Blitzer pressed Kelly to clarify: “If you get some young kids who manage to sneak into the United States with their parents, are Department of Homeland Security personnel going to separate the children from their moms and dads?”

“We have tremendous experience with unaccompanied minors,” Kelly responded.

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