Accountability and Lessons Learned from the Trump Administration’s Child Separation Policy

Testimony of Inspector General

 

Washington, D.C. (Feb. 1, 2021)—On Thursday, February 4, 2021, at 10:00 a.m., Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, will hold a hearing with Michael E. Horowitz, the Inspector General of the Department of Justice (DOJ), who will testify about his office’s recent report on the Trump Administration’s immigrant child separation policy.

 

Between April and June 2018, the Trump Administration separated more than 3,000 children from their parents at the southern border as the result of policy changes instituted by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen.

 

The Inspector General report found that top DOJ officials—including Attorney General Sessions—pursued their “zero tolerance” policy knowing full-well that it would forcibly separate children from their parents.  

 

The report’s findings mirror the Committee’s own investigation, which revealed that the Trump Administration misled the public on the Administration’s rationale for the policy while downplaying the harm caused by child separations.