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UN calls U.S. family separation policy "serious violation" of rights

Demonstrators protest Trump administration policy that enables federal agents to separate undocumented migrant children from their parents.
Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

The United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday that the Trump administration's policy separating migrant children from their families as they cross the border is "a serious violation of the rights of the child," the New York Times reports.

The details: The administration rejected this characterization by the UN, with UN Ambassador Nikki Haley saying it shows "hypocrisy" of the global organization, "while it ignores the reprehensible human rights records of several members of its own Human Rights Council." However, President Trump has repeatedly blamed Democrats for what he says is legal.

What they're saying: Spokeswoman for the UN's High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ravina Shamdasani, said the U.S. "should immediately halt this practice of separating families and stop criminalizing what should at most be an administrative offense — that of irregular entry or stay in the U.S."

Yes, but: Axios' Stef Kight reported that while a court decision reached by a Democratic administration opened the legal possibility of separating children immigrants from their parents, only the Trump administration decided to take advantage of the ruling and enforce the practice.

United Nations (UN)