US stops prosecuting most immigrant parents, but White House won't say when families will be reunited
MCALLEN, Texas - U.S. Border Patrol agents have stopped handing parents over to the Justice Department for prosecution when they are caught crossing the border illegally with their children, the head of the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency said Monday.
The statement by Commissioner Kevin McAleenan marked a significant step back from the "zero tolerance" policy that the Trump administration has pursued for the last two months, which has led to more than 2,000 children being taken from their parents. President Donald Trump issued an order Wednesday to stop separating families.
"We're not prosecuting those parents," McAleenan told reporters in a briefing here, "because of guidance in the (executive order) to maintain family unity."
His statement came as White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the government was starting to "run out of space" to house people apprehended crossing the border. "We're simply out of resources,"
