A strict new "zero tolerance" enforcement policy will mean more parents caught illegally crossing the U.S. border will get prosecuted and separated from any children accompanying them, according to a Department of Homeland Security official.
Attorney General Jeff Sessions is expected to make the immigration enforcement announcement Monday afternoon in the San Diego area at a news conference. He is expected to be accompanied by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Deputy Director Thomas Homan.
"This is not about family separation," said the DHS official, who didn't wish to be named. "This is all about referring people for prosecution who break our nation's immigration laws."
But the DHS official conceded one effect of the tougher new policy is it will result in separation of families who illegally cross the southwest border.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the tough new policy has been under discussion for months, but added that the administration postponed announcing it "because of the sensitivities of removing children from their parents."
The DHS official said the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agency has seen "significant increases in the number of family units and unaccompanied alien children" crossing the border illegally over the past 12 months. The official said the adult parents making illegal crossings with minors are "risking the lives of their children."
This past month, the CBP said it has had contact with more than 50,000 immigrants seeking to illegally enter the United States.
Under the Department of Justice's "zero-tolerance policy," the official said those persons apprehended for illegally crossing will get sent immediately to federal court under the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. However, any children found illegally crossing with adults "will be transferred to the custody of Health and Human Services' Office of Refugee Resettlement."
In March, the American Civil Liberties Union sued to the Trump administration in a class-action complaint that alleges the government is "forcibly separating asylum-seeking parents and young children."
Undocumented families seeking amnesty and allowed into the U.S. at a port of entry are usually allowed to stay together but go to detention facilities. There have recently been members of a caravan of migrants from Central America at the U.S.-Mexico border who have sought asylum, including children.
"If families are seeking asylum or other legal protections," the DHS official said, the agency "encourages them to present themselves at a port of entry. If individuals including families, choose to break the law, there will be consequences."
Added the official. "When dealing with families that cross the border, our primary responsibility is to ensure the welfare of the children. Unfortunately, we continue to see too many cases of children being used by smugglers, traffickers and [transnational criminal organizations] in an attempt to circumvent our laws and gain entry."
According to DHS, separation of the families also "may occur when we are unable to determine the custodial relationship, when we determine that a child may be at risk with the custodian, or when the custodian is transferred to a criminal detention setting due to criminal charges. That is long-standing policy."