Did Obama keep immigrant children in cages?
Executive summary
Yes — facilities with chain‑link enclosures often described as “cages” were used to hold migrant children under the Obama administration, especially during the 2014 surge; those same types of enclosures were later used under the Trump administration as well [1] [2]. However, routine, systematic family separation as formal policy was instituted by the Trump “zero tolerance” program in 2018; Obama’s administration expanded family detention and used enclosures but did not adopt the zero‑tolerance parent‑child separation policy [2] [3].
1. The plain fact: Obama-era facilities included chain‑link enclosures
Reporting and fact‑checks agree that the Obama administration built and used border facilities with chain‑link enclosures that many described as “cages.” Snopes concluded “the Obama administration, not the Trump administration, built the cages that hold many immigrant children at the U.S.‑Mexico border” [1]. AP and other fact‑checks likewise say the chain‑link fencing photos circulated from 2014 showed children held in enclosures used by the Obama‑Biden team [2] [4].
2. What “kids in cages” has come to mean in political debate
The phrase “kids in cages” became a visceral shorthand in 2018–2020 for the Trump administration’s treatment of migrant children, but fact‑checkers warn the image has been used to conflate two different things: the physical enclosures and the later policy of systematic family separation [2] [4]. AP noted the wording is “misleading” when Democrats use the image to imply the same policy or scale of separations existed under Obama [2].
3. Distinguishing detention, enclosures, and separation policies
Under Obama, large numbers of unaccompanied children and some families were detained during the 2014 surge and the administration expanded family detention beginning in summer 2014; advocacy groups and courts challenged those practices [5] [6]. But the Trump administration’s 2018 “zero tolerance” policy intentionally prosecuted all illegal entry cases and resulted in widespread, routine separations of parents and children — a practice that “had no precedent” as critics and fact‑checkers put it [7] [2] [3].
4. Legal and advocacy reactions then and now
Civil‑rights organizations sued and criticized the Obama administration for using family detention as a deterrent and for detaining asylum‑seeking mothers and children, calling it inhumane and unlawful [6]. Advocacy groups continued to condemn expansions such as the Dilley facility as putting families at risk and as part of a broader detention infrastructure [8] [5].
5. Why the distinction matters politically and morally
Noting who “built the cages” is not an absolution: using chain‑link enclosures and expanding family detention under Obama drew legal challenges and moral condemnation [6] [5]. But conflating that with the Trump administration’s policy of separating families as a routine enforcement tool obscures the different policy choices and legal consequences between administrations [2] [3].
6. Competing narratives and their motives
Political actors have incentives to simplify this issue. Trump and allies pointed to Obama to deflect criticism about images of children in enclosures, while Democrats emphasize the horror of family separations under Trump to highlight new policy cruelty. Fact‑checkers and immigration advocates show both narratives contain truth: facilities and enclosures existed under Obama, and systematic family separation was a Trump policy with different scale and intent [1] [2] [3].
7. What reporting does not settle from provided sources
Available sources do not mention precise counts in comparable years within this packet (e.g., total children held in enclosures in 2014 vs. 2018) or every internal policy memo that shaped decisions. They also do not provide exhaustive treatment of individual facility conditions beyond references to chain‑link enclosures and legal challenges [1] [6] [5].
Bottom line: the physical “cages” — chain‑link enclosures used to house migrant children — were built and used during the Obama administration [1] [2]. But the systematic, routine separation of children from parents as an enforcement policy is tied to the Trump administration’s 2018 “zero tolerance” approach, which represented a distinct and unprecedented practice [2] [3].