President Donald Trump sent out a tweet on Tuesday criticizing Democrats for failing to "get their act together" to protect immigrants and blamed them for separating families at the border.
However, as The Hill pointed out, the policy the president is referring to, which he blames on Democrats, was announced in May by his own Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
The new policy, based on underlying law adopted in 1986, allows the prosecution of adults separately from children when families seek asylum at the border.
The separated children are placed in the custody of a branch of the Health and Human Services Department, while the adults are processed.
Sessions described the policy at a law enforcement event in Scottsdale, Arizona last month, explaining that "if you are smuggling a child then we will prosecute you, and that child will be separated from you as required by law. If you don’t like that, then don’t smuggle children over our border," according to Time.
Democrats have vocally opposed the policy, including House Democratic representatives sending a letter to Sessions and Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen calling it "antithetical not only to American values but to basic decency and humanity," according to The Hill.
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