Index/Topics/Zero-tolerance policy

Zero-tolerance policy

The Trump administration's zero tolerance policy at the U.S. border, which led to the separation of children from their parents.

Fact-Checks

7 results
Jan 26, 2026
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Tom Homan worked at ICE under Obama and also Trump

is a career immigration enforcement official who held senior ICE roles during the administration and then served as acting director of in the early administration; he was executive associate director ...

Jan 15, 2026
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How many migrant children were separated under Trump versus prior administrations and how were those numbers compiled?

Estimates of children separated from parents at the U.S. border during the Trump administration vary widely because they were compiled from incomplete, inconsistent government records, court filings a...

Jan 18, 2026
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How did detention and family separation policies compare under Obama and Trump?

The Obama and Trump administrations operated under the same immigration statutes but pursued markedly different enforcement priorities and practices: Obama emphasized a tiered, prosecutorial-priority ...

Jan 12, 2026

How many migrant children were separated under the Trump zero‑tolerance policy and how were reunifications tracked?

Estimates of how many migrant children were separated under the Trump administration’s “zero‑tolerance” policy vary by source — official agency tallies and later government reviews and reporting put t...

Jan 27, 2026

What data exist on the number of children separated from parents at the U.S. border across administrations, and what are the recordkeeping limitations?

Publicly available reporting and government reviews show multiple, conflicting tallies of border: human-rights and legal groups estimate roughly 4,600 separations during 2017–2021 , some analyses and ...

Jan 11, 2026

What policies did the Obama administration implement for family detention and shelters for immigrants?

The Obama administration significantly expanded family detention beginning in mid‑2014, opening large family residential centers and increasing use of detention for recently arrived Central American m...

Jan 11, 2026

What are the current ICE policies regarding detention and family separation at the US-Mexico border?

Current ICE policy emphasizes use of Alternatives to Detention (ATD) for family units where appropriate while maintaining authority to detain and remove noncitizens under expedited and mandatory deten...