A Trump administration 'myth vs fact' sheet on its family separation policy deliberately avoids the most important point about the scandal

Susan Walsh/AP

Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in April.

• The Trump administration is under fire for its policy of separating children from their parents at the US-Mexico border.
• As a result, the Department of Homeland Security has published a supposed fact check of its family separation policy.
• It details "myths" about the policy, and blames the media and congressmen for negative stories about it.
• But it leaves out the main reason it is separating families: The Justice Department's new hardline zero-tolerance policy on border immigration.

The Department of Homeland Security published a "Myth vs. Fact" document in an attempt to cool the political firestorm around its family separation policy - but it deliberately avoided mentioning its new zero-tolerance policy that is behind the scandal.

The supposed fact check, published on the DHS website on Monday, attempts to debunk 13 "myths" about ongoing family separations at the US border. Its efforts to do so are dubious, however.

In one instance, the DHS specifically claims that it "does not have a blanket policy of separating families at the border." Instead, it says, families are only split up if the parent or legal guardian "is referred for criminal prosecution."

However, it does not mention the key fact that under the Justice Department's new zero-tolerance policy, everyone crossing the US-Mexico border without authorization is automatically subject to criminal prosecution. All such people would therefore have their children taken away.

Here is the relevant passage:

"DHS does not have a blanket policy of separating families at the border. However, DHS does have a responsibility to protect all minors in our custody.

"This means DHS will separate adults and minors under certain circumstances. These circumstances include:

1) when DHS is unable to determine the familial relationship,

2) when DHS determines that a child may be at risk with the parent or legal guardian, or

3) when the parent or legal guardian is referred for criminal prosecution."

While the above is technically correct, it doesn't acknowledge that deliberate increase in prosecutions is what is driving more separations.

Chip Somodevilla/Getty; John Moore/Getty; Shayanne Gal/Business Insider

The Trump administration has consistently denied having a specific policy to separate children from parents at the border, but an internal document published on Friday indicated just that.

The DHS document also denied housing children in "cages," opting to call them "short-term facilities" that "make use of barriers in order to separate minors of different genders and age groups." It said this is for their safety.

Photos taken inside the facilities showed hundreds of migrants, including children, sleeping inside metal cages, on mattresses on the ground, and wrapped in foil blankets.

One 16-year-old girl had reportedly been taking care of a young girl who was separated from her mother, and had been teaching other children in the cell how to change diapers.

Customs and Border Protection's Rio Grande Valley Sector via Associated Press

In this photo provided by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, people who've been taken into custody related to cases of illegal entry into the United States, sit in one of the cages at a facility in McAllen, Texas, Sunday, June 17, 2018.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced in May: "I have put in place a zero-tolerance policy for illegal entry on our southwest border. If you cross this border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you. It's that simple.

"If you smuggle illegal aliens across our border, then we will prosecute you. If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law."

Under the Obama administration, migrants detained at the border were also released and allowed to remain in the US while their immigration court cases were pending, in what was referred to as "catch and release."

Trump has ended that practice. Families were also referred for civil deportation proceedings, and therefore were not separated.

The DHS also blamed the media and opposing congressmen for "mislead[ing] the public" in their reports of the Trump administration's zero-tolerance policy.

Even many senior Republicans, including Senators John McCain and Susan Collins, and former First Lady Laura Bush, have spoken out against the family separation scandal.