If you, like me, feel like you're barely treading water in the ocean of human horrors created by the Trump administration, it can feel like the zero tolerance immigration policy almost came out of nowhere. One day I was bemoaning the inaction on DACA, the next we have concentration camps full of innocent children. Given that I only started hearing about this in the month of June, I'd assumed this cruel and inhumane policy was announced very recently. But as I did some research, I realized that I'd become so overwhelmed with all the human rights abuses of the Trump administration that I'd missed the early days of this policy.

Back in March of 2017, John Kelly who was then the Secretary of Homeland Security discussed the idea of a policy to separate children from their parents when family crossed the border. Secretary Kelly specifically said he was considering this policy to deter people from crossing the border illegally. In April, the New York Times reported that around 700 children had been taken from their families, though at that point it wasn't clear that this was a formal policy. Then this May, Attorney General Jeff Sessions (human Confederate flag) announced a policy that said anyone crossing the border illegally would be prosecuted, and children would be separated from their parents.