Officials said in 2017 that separated migrants under 12 couldn't find parents again on their own
Oct. 9, 2020, 5:00 AM EDT
By Julia Ainsley and Jacob Soboroff
The memo, written by federal prosecutors in Texas, was never sent to Washington. The Trump administration launched its family separation policy in mid-2018.
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Bash had recently assumed the role of U.S. attorney; his predecessor oversaw the pilot program.
The inspector general's office found no evidence that Bash ever sent the memo to the offices of Rosenstein or Jeff Sessions, who was then the attorney general, and no evidence that they ever asked for it. Asked why he did not send the memo to Washington, Bash told the inspector general that when he was not asked for it, he assumed that the Justice Department either had gotten the information it needed elsewhere or had abandoned the idea of borderwide separations.
Bash told the inspector general's office that he did not send the memo without such a request because he had "no interest in pushing DHS to restart family unit referrals or in nationalizing the concluded pilot program," according to the draft report, and that he thought sending the memo would "re-commence the discussion."
While the zero-tolerance policy was in effect in mid-2018, however, Bash did field a list of questions from U.S. attorneys along the border who were concerned about the number of parents who were being referred to them for prosecution, according to the draft inspector general's report. He asked why the Department of Health and Human Services did not just return children to their parents as soon as the parents were out of the criminal justice system.
In a email to Justice Department officials on June 18, 2018, Bash asked whether it was true that parents were told that their children were being taken for baths, something he had been told by a public defender.
President Donald Trump extended the zero-tolerance policy in an executive order two days later, on June 20.
Bash announced his resignation this week, citing a desire to go into private practice. He had also been tasked by Attorney General William Barr to investigate Obama administration officials for ordering the "unmasking" of Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, in intelligence reports.
Bash and a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office declined to comment.
New details of the Justice Department's role in "zero tolerance" have emerged in the draft of the inspector general's report, which was first reported by The New York Times.
more:
http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/immigration/officials-said-2017-separated-migrants-under-12-couldn-t-find-n1242439
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