The "Zero Tolerance" Policy Should Be Rescinded Altogether

By Rocio Velazquez Kato, Immigration Policy Analyst

It is an awful and illegal idea to jail children indefinitely along with adults. The only way to end mass family separations at the border is to end the “Zero Tolerance” policy of prosecuting every single person crossing the border without authorization.

The Executive Order signed by the president does not solve the callous impact of the “Zero Tolerance” policy currently being enforced at the United States-Mexico border. Instead, the Executive Order directs the Department of Homeland Security to detain parents and children together for indefinite periods of time. 

The Order seeks to overturn the 1997 Flores v. Reno Settlement Agreement, which prohibits the government from detaining children for more than 20 days. Furthermore, the reality is that children will still be separated from their families before they are reunited in detention.

In 2015, Family detention centers were found be violating the Flores Agreement, and a federal district court had ordered the government to place children in the “least restrictive environment” or with a family member. 

The “Zero Tolerance” policy is not a law, but an executive branch decision that could easily be reversed by the president, without the need for an Executive Order.