Filling my inbox, twitter is some version of the argument “Obama did it too!” re child detentions and separations. Usually with more profanity. So, a bit of context, as someone who covered this in 2014 and reported stories that embarassed the Obama admin washingtonpost.com/world/the_amer…
During the “border kids crisis” in 2014 there were children and families in arguably worse detention conditions, because Border Patrol was overwhelmed. And Obama admin responded by a) expanding cage-like short-term detention, and b)trying to build more ICE family jails
But the effort to expand family detention didnt get very far and the 2015-2016 court decisions (Flores vs Lynch) further limited child detention and really sapped the push to build new facilities
What the Obama admin did NOT do — even when presented with the option— is attempt to systematically separate migrant parents from children AS A DETERRENT to illegal crossings. Thats the difference, and it’s a big one. See here washingtonpost.com/world/national…
