Trump officials complained about separated migrant families being reunited too quickly, emails show

In the spring of 2018, top U.S. immigration officials under the Trump administration complained that migrant families split up along the southern border were being reunited too quickly, emails released to a federal court this week show.

On May 10, 2018, Matthew Albence, then a top Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) official who is now in the private sector, wrote an email raising a concern about the implementation of the "zero-tolerance" policy, which required Border Patrol agents to separate migrant parents from their children for the purpose of prosecuting them for unlawful entry and designating their children as unaccompanied minors, who must be housed by the U.S. refugee agency.

Albence said he was concerned that migrant parents separated from their children in Arizona would quickly be returned to Border Patrol custody after pleading guilty to crossing the border without legal permission — a misdemeanor offense — because the local district court generally sentenced them to time served.