SAN ANTONIO – As criticism rolls in for widespread family separations happening at the border, President Donald Trump joined in Friday, though he blamed a different target.
"Children can be taken care of quickly, beautifully and immediately," Trump told reporters. "The Democrats forced that law upon our nation."
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A St. Mary's School of Law professor said the separations are the product only of the Trump administration's "zero-tolerance" policy.
"There isn't a law on the books that requires families to be separated," said Erica Schommer, who runs the Immigration Clinic at the Center for Legal and Social Justice at St. Mary's School of Law.
The policy, which was announced in early April, routinely refers parents found crossing the border illegally for criminal prosecution, rather than treating it as a civil matter. As a result, they are separated from their children, who aren't charged.
Schommer said the widespread prosecutions are a departure from the norm.
"Any prosecutor has the discretion, unless his boss says otherwise, whether or not to bring criminal charges," she said.
While there is no law requiring that families be separated if found crossing illegally, the Associated Press suggested Trump's references to a Democratic law appear to be in reference to a 2008 law signed by then-President George W. Bush. According to the news service, that law "focused on freeing and otherwise helping children who come to the border without a parent or guardian. It does not call for family separation.”
"What's interesting is that the administration's policy of taking the children away from the parent is that the government is making them unaccompanied by separating them from their parent," Schommer said.
She said there is also a legal settlement, known as the Flores Settlement, requiring that children not be detained or be detained in the least restrictive settings. But Schommer says it doesn't require separation either.
Additionally, Schommer said there is no legal requirement that the parents need to be detained during the criminal proceedings.
"People get prosecuted in federal court without being detained, or they have a bond hearing and then they're released," Schommer said.