DHS announces new rule to end 'catch and release'

In an attempt to eliminate the "catch and release" program that separates the families of illegal aliens seeking asylum, the
Trump administration on Wednesday announced a proposal to end the Flores agreement.

The new rule announced by acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan would allow the children of illegal-alien families to be held beyond the current 20-day limit.

Under the current system, the requirement that children be released after 20 days allows entire families to be released into the United States, unless the children are separated from their parents.

"By closing this key loophole in Flores, the new rule will restore integrity to our immigration system and eliminate the major pull factor fueling the crisis," McAleenan said at a news conference Wednesday.

Democrats made a political issue out of the Trump administration's decision earlier this year to enforce the separation policy, even though it was in place under previous administrations.

The administration also has proposed rules to make it more difficult for illegal aliens to obtain green cards and to bar Central Americans who pass through a third country on their way to the United States from applying for asylum.

McAleenan said at a news conference Wednesday the facilities the federal government will use to temporarily house families under the new rule are "appropriately, fundamentally different than the facilities where migrants are processed following apprehension or encounter at the border."

The regulation, which is certain to face legal challenges, is to take effect 60 days after it is formally published later this week.

CNN reported Madhuri Grewal, policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the new rule "yet another cruel attack on children, who the Trump administration has targeted again and again with its anti-immigrant policies."

"The government should not be jailing kids, and certainly shouldn't be seeking to put more kids in jail for longer," Grewal said.

The number of family members seeking asylum has surged this year.

Already in 2019, more than 430,000 family members have been arrested for crossing the southern border illegally. Last year, only about 100,000 were arrested the entire year.