Family Separation Spin in Nevada

A misleading Spanish-language TV ad from a group backing President Donald Trump claims that then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden “separated families and put children in cages” while it shows images of minors who were temporarily detained after crossing the southern border on their own — without a parent or guardian.

Immigration experts say that some families who illegally migrated to the U.S. together were separated under the Obama administration, but there was no blanket policy to criminally prosecute the parents and, therefore, separate them from their children, which is what happened early in the Trump administration. A from the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general also said that “historically” such family “separations were rare and occurred because of circumstances such as a parent’s medical emergency or a determination that the parent was a threat to the child’s safety.”