The policy, introduced in May by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, caused widespread outrage in the US this week after pictures of children being separated from their parents and placed in detention were splashed across the media.
Under the “zero-tolerance” policy, anyone who crosses the US border faces criminal prosecution, meaning parents are sent to jail while their children are put into government custody. Over 2,300 children have been separated from their parents since the policy was enacted.
The backlash has now forced US President Donald Trump to sign an order to keep parents and children together – but it’s not clear if the practice could start up again if a federal judge refuses to give the White House the authority it wants to hold families together for longer.
An official also confirmed that the children already separated won’t be immediately reunited with their families. “There will not be a grandfathering of existing cases,” Health and Human Services Department spokesperson Kenneth Wolfe said.
But it’s not like we can talk – in a notorious phone call between PM Malcolm Turnbull and Trump shortly after his inauguration, Trump labelled Australia’s detention of asylum seekers a “good idea”, saying “we should do that too”.
A reminder that the Americans aren’t the only ones who should be outraged.
