BORDER/CHILDREN/IMMIGRATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Changes to the Trump administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy of detaining all adults illegally crossing the southern border were creating confusion throughout the immigration bureaucracy, from front-line law enforcement to social-service agencies supporting thousands of children. Officials had been told earlier Thursday [6-21-18] to prosecute only one adult traveling with children if two were present, and to prioritize prosecution of male adults, a federal law-enforcement official said, with exceptions where adults had a criminal history. The official said Thursday afternoon that policy was changing again but didn’t immediately elaborate. In federal court in McAllen, Texas, 17 parents were removed from the morning docket of recent border crossers being charged with a misdemeanor for crossing the border illegally, according to another official. Trump administration officials denied that there were any changes to the policy Thursday, which the president had reaffirmed in an executive order Wednesday [6-20-18]…The Justice Department denied that it would stop prosecuting adults at the southern border, saying only that ‘zero tolerance,’ rolled out earlier this year, remains in place. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to questions about the policy or reports about changes.”
-Alicia A. Caldwell, Melanie Grayce West and Jennifer Levitz, “Trump’s Order to End Immigrant Family Separation Sows Confusion,” The Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2018 3:42 pm