Jeff Sessions

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The Southern Poverty Law Center's Hatewatch publishes on November 12, 2019 the first of a five-part series analyzing more than 900 emails exchanged between senior White House adviser Stephen Miller — the architect of Trump's immigration crackdown — and editors at Breitbart News between March 2015 and June 2016. The emails, leaked by former Breitbart writer Katie McHugh, show Miller routinely recommending white nationalist literature, conspiracy theories, and websites to shape Breitbart's immigration coverage. Among the promoted materials: "The Camp of the Saints," a racist French novel depicting a "great replacement" of white Europeans, popular among neo-Nazis. In 80 percent of the 900+ emails, Miller references race or immigration. Miller also had a documented relationship with white nationalist Richard Spencer dating to their time at Duke University. More than 107 Democratic members of Congress call for Miller's resignation or firing. Trump retains Miller, who in Trump's second term becomes the head of the Domestic Policy Council — the most powerful domestic policy position in the executive branch.

The U.S. Supreme Court rules 5-4 on June 26, 2018 in Trump v. Hawaii that President Trump's third iteration of the travel ban — Presidential Proclamation 9645, restricting entry from Iran, Libya, North Korea, Somalia, Syria, Venezuela, and Yemen — is a lawful exercise of presidential authority over immigration. Chief Justice John Roberts writes the majority opinion, holding that the ban is neutral on its face and within the president's statutory authority under 8 U.S.C. § 1182(f). Justice Sotomayor's dissent quotes Trump's own statements calling for a "Muslim ban" and compares the majority's reasoning to Korematsu v. United States, the now-repudiated 1944 ruling upholding Japanese American internment. Trump announces the ruling as "a tremendous victory" and "a moment of profound vindication." Civil rights organizations note the ruling cements into law a policy that Trump launched with a December 2015 press release explicitly calling for blocking Muslim immigration.

President Trump signed an executive order directing DHS to keep families together during immigration detention after six weeks of public outcry over family separation under the Zero Tolerance policy. The order did not end criminal prosecution of adults crossing the border; it directed agencies to detain families together in DHS facilities instead. Federal courts subsequently ruled that family detention of children for extended periods violated prior consent decrees, creating ongoing legal conflict between the administration enforcement goals and child welfare law.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions issues a precedent decision in Matter of A-B- (27 I&N Dec. 316), reversing a prior BIA ruling and holding that victims of domestic violence and gang violence generally do not qualify for asylum based on membership in a particular social group. The decision instructs immigration judges to apply a more restrictive standard when adjudicating social group claims. Advocacy organizations file nationwide challenges. Federal courts later enjoin portions of the policy.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions announces the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" policy on May 7, 2018, mandating criminal prosecution of all adults crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, including asylum seekers. Because children cannot be held in federal criminal detention, the policy results in the systematic separation of children — including infants and toddlers — from their parents. In briefings to federal prosecutors, Sessions states: "We need to take away children." Senior adviser Stephen Miller, the architect of the policy, tells a White House meeting: "If we don't enforce this, it is the end of our country as we know it." In the six weeks before a federal court orders a halt, DHS separates 2,816 children from their parents. Hundreds of children are transported to shelters thousands of miles from the border; some are placed in foster care. The DHS Inspector General later finds the department is entirely unprepared to reunite separated families and that parents are deported without their children. As of 2023, hundreds of children remain unaccompanied, still separated from parents who cannot be located. The policy disproportionately affects Central American and Mexican families.