Campaign

Pence says he would not revive family separations at border if elected

by Brett Samuels - 06/07/23 10:10 PM ET

FILE – Former Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Westside Conservative Club Breakfast, March 29, 2023, in Urbandale, Iowa. Last week a federal judge, James Boasberg, ruled that Pence had to give some testimony in a Justice Department special counsel probe into efforts to undo the election. The decision rejected the Trump team’s arguments of executive privilege, though Boasberg did give Pence a victory by accepting his lawyers’ arguments that, for constitutional reasons, he could not be questioned about his actions on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday said he would not bring back the Trump administration’s family separation policy at the southern border if he is elected president.

At a CNN town hall, Pence was asked if he’d revive the controversial policy to curb immigration at the southern border after former President Donald Trump refused to rule out doing so at his own town hall event last month.

“No,” the former vice president said flatly.

“The family separation policy actually began under the Obama administration, and then we continued it until President Trump rightly reversed course,” Pence added. “We’ve got to stop putting band-aids on the problem. We’ve got to stop having small little fixes and programs.”

Pence called for finishing the border wall, reinstating the Remain in Mexico Policy that requires individuals seeking asylum to remain in Mexico until their U.S. court date, and fixing the “broken immigration system once and for all.”

Multiple fact-checkers have previously debunked the common claim among Republicans that the Obama administration had a policy of separating parents and children.

The Trump administration in 2018 implemented a “zero tolerance” policy for those who crossed the southern border illegally, meaning that hundreds of migrant children were separated from their parents, who were taken to court for criminal proceedings.

Trump eventually ended the zero tolerance policy in the face of backlash from human rights groups and lawmakers in both parties.

The Biden administration has worked to reunite families that were separated during the previous administration’s “zero tolerance” policy. Officials have said they have united more than 600 children with their families, though nearly 1,000 children still remain separated from their families.

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) on Wednesday hit Pence over immigration, tying him closely to Trump’s policies during their four years in the White House together.

“As vice president, Mike Pence stood alongside Donald Trump as their administration took every opportunity to sabotage and undermine the U.S. immigration system — ignoring precedent and prioritizing cruel and inhumane policies that left countless families suffering,” the DNC said in a statement.