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(RNN) – When the Trump administration announced a family separation policy at the border in May and then, just weeks later, ended it on Wednesday, it added a fresh chapter to America’s often patchwork, often disjointed recent history on immigration.
The “zero-tolerance” policy separating families announced by Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May was a new extreme in the U.S. government’s attempts to deter immigrants from arriving at the southern border. But it was not completely out of line with actions taken by former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush.
The concept of zero-tolerance, itself, piggybacked a longstanding policy known as Operation Streamline.
That initiative was established under Bush, expanded under Obama and has continued under Trump. It is one of a number that have ebbed and flowed between administrations or from legal and political challenges.
There’s also Secure Communities, and Section 287(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, enforcement initiatives embraced to varying degrees by both Bush and Obama.
There’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, known as DACA, Obama’s signature offer of relief to “DREAMers,” people brought to the U.S. as children who have spent most of their lives here. There was also the less successful DAPA, Deferred Action for Parents of Americans, which lost key court battles and was terminated by Trump shortly after he took office.
There’s the original DREAM Act itself, legislation that would bring permanent resolution to the status of many, defined by a 17-year history of false promise and enduring pessimism.
The holy grail in all this is a bill to once and for all complete comprehensive immigration reform. On that front, there’s Bush's failed plan (2007), Obama’s failed plan (2013) and, yes, now Trump’s own calls for a lasting law on the matter.
Amidst all this, people continue to flee violence and poverty in parts of Latin America and arrive at the border, where they’re met by a byzantine and often incoherent network of law enforcement and bureaucratic agencies.
Perhaps the only point people agree on is that the system is dysfunctional.
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