As the Department of Homeland Security steps up immigration law enforcement and announces its plans to solicit bids for constructing a border wall, it is also revisiting another suggestion intended to discourage migrants from making the journey: Separating parents and children when they are apprehended at the border. Children, meanwhile, would be allowed into the US and either sent to stay with relatives or placed in state custody. The approach is designed to eliminate what some Republican legislators have termed a “free pass” under the current system, whereby adults accompanied by children can be quickly released into the US while they wait for an asylum decision.



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