Trump administration planned to deny children legal right to asylum hearings, document reveals

The Trump administration considered speeding up the deportation of migrant children after they were separated from their families by denying them their legal right to asylum hearings, a leaked document reveals.

According to a 2017 draft of what became the government’s family separation policy, officials also wanted to increase prosecutions of migrant parents arriving in the US, which, the authors said, would be “reported by the media” and “have a substantial deterrent effect”.

The draft plan was made public by the office of Democrat senator Jeff Markley, which said it had been leaked by a government whistleblower.

In a tweet, Mr Markley accused the Trump administration of planning to “traumatise children and intentionally create a humanitarian crisis at the border”.

Andrew Stroehlein, a director at Human Rights Watch, said the plan was an attempt to be as “nasty as possible to the most powerless and most desperate people as a warning to others”.

“Abuse that is equal parts deranged and ineffective,” he added on Twitter.

In the memo, dated 16 December 2017 and titled, “Policy Options to Respond to Border Surge of Illegal Immigration”, Justice Department and Homeland Security (DHS) officials lay out a number of options to deal primarily with immigration across the US-Mexico border.

The report was circulated among high level officials within both departments, according to NBC News.

In one suggestion, a Justice Department official says Customs and Border Protection (CBP) could make sure children separated from their parents were denied an asylum hearing before a judge.

“If CPB ... could place the parents in the custody of the US Marshal, and then place the minors with the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), it would seem that DHS could work with HHS to actually repatriate the minors then,” an official wrote.

“It would take coordination with the home countries, of course, but that doesn’t seem like too much of a cost to pay compared to the status quo.”

It is unclear whether the plan, which was not implemented, would have seen the children reunited with their parents before being deported.

Katie Waldman, a DHS spokeswoman, said: “The Trump administration has made clear that all legal options are on the table to enforce the rule of law, rein in mass unchecked illegal immigration, and defend our borders.

She continued: "In part we were predicting – and trying to prevent - the exact humanitarian and security crisis we are confronted by now. It would be malpractice to not seriously examine every single avenue to gain operational control of the border and ensure that those who are entering our country have a legal right to be here.”

The revelation comes after a federal audit released on Thursday concluded the Trump administration likely separated thousands more children at the southern border than previously acknowledged.

“More children over a longer period of time” were separated from their family at the border than were previously known, the HHS inspector general told reporters. “How many more children were separated is unknown, by us and the HHS.”