Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) couldn’t give a straight answer when asked if Donald Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies would increase instances of family separation.
During a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press,” the vice presidential candidate talked around the issue of family separation instead of focusing on the supposed failures of the Biden-Harris administration.
When moderator Kristen Welker noted how more than 11 million U.S. citizens who live in households with mixed immigration status could be impacted by Trump’s approach, Vance claimed his priority was walking back the current administration’s policies, which the Department of Homeland Security says has seen illegal border crossings drop to their lowest levels in about five years.
“You have to stop so many people from coming here illegally in the first place, and that means undoing everything that [Vice President] Kamala Harris did practically on day one of the administration,” he explained. “Before we even fix the problem, we’ve got to stop the problem from getting worse.”
Asked again if Trump’s plan for mass deportations would lead to family separation, Vance deflected by baselessly accusing the Democrats of being the ones harming children.
“Kamala Harris’ policies have led to thousands upon thousands of migrant children living with sex traffickers and drug cartels,” he told Welker, adding, “She has to take responsibility for that. That’s what real leadership is.”
After Welker pointed out that the Biden-Harris administration does not have an explicit policy on dividing mixed-status families, Vance assured her that enforcing Trump’s zero tolerance strategy would be the “most humane thing, for children and certainly for American citizens.”
When President Joe Biden took office in 2021, he rescinded many of Trump’s more draconian deportation mandates.
And after establishing a family reunification task force, it was found that more than 5,000 families were separated under the previous administration’s orders.
Still, a 2022 study by the National Immigrant Justice Center found the Biden administration “routinely separates families” and had no “meaningful policies designed to protect family unity.”