Sorry 8th, that you flunked the class on 'apples v

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Fact check: Did Obama administration separate families?

This claim , from DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and conservative commentators, is false , according to immigration advocates and former officials.

by Jane C. Timm / Jun.19.2018 / 5:17 PM ET / Updated Jun.20.2018 / 8:12 AM ET

https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration...es-n884856

"You know what's ironic?" he said. "It's the same way Barack Obama did it."

But immigration advocates and former Obama administration officials say that's just not true: The Obama administration did not have any kind of widespread practice of separating children from their parents. Trump's policy aims to prosecute every single illegal border crossing, including asylum-seekers.

The government separates children from their parents or legal guardians because the adults have been referred for prosecution for illegal entry into the United States.

The idea that this is simply a continuation of an Obama-era practice is "preposterous," said Denise Gilman, director of the Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas Law School. "There were occasionally instances where you would find a separated family — maybe like one every six months to a year — and that was usually because there had been some actual individualized concern that there was a trafficking situation or that the parent wasn’t actually the parent."

Once custody concerns were resolved, "there was pretty immediately reunification," Gilman told NBC News. "There were not 2,000 kids in two months — it’s not the same universe," she added.

The Trump administration separated 1,995 children from 1,940 adults from April 19 to May 31, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security said Friday, a period in which the "zero tolerance" policy was in effect.

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