Donald Trump to reinstate detention and separation of migrant families: when will the measure come into effect?

President-elect Donald Trump’s new border czar, Tom Homan, revealed that under the next administration the detention and separation of migrant families will return.

In a recent interview with The Washington Post, Homan said that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) will seek to hold parents with children in tents.

Homan also explained that the government will not hesitate to deport parents who are in the country illegally even if they have small children born in the United States, so families will have to decide whether they all leave the country or separate. “This is the problem. They knew they were in the country illegally, and they chose to have a child. So they put their family in that position,” Homan said.

“We’re going to have to build family-friendly facilities. The number of beds we’re going to need will depend on what the data says,” he added. As border czar, Homan will not lead ICE operations but will work closely on border and immigration issues with Kristi L. Noem, who will lead the Department of Homeland Security. Noem currently serves as the governor of South Dakota.

When will the policies come into effect?

On several occasions, President-elect Donald Trump has expressed that mass deportations will form part of his agenda on Day 1 of taking office.

On whether there will be new detention camps to hold immigrants, the president-elect said the following in his interview with TIME for the Person of the Year article: “Well, there might be. Whatever it takes to get them out. I don’t care. Honestly, whatever it takes to get them out.”

For Trump, there will be little need to build new camps because he plans to deport undocumented migrants and has threatened countries that would be unwilling to accept these individuals by cutting economic ties or imposing sanctions on them.

When asked by TIME if he planned to reinstate the family separation policy, he said that he didn’t think that would be necessary because his administration “will send the whole family back to the country.” Families will face the choice of all being deported, even in cases where children of undocumented parents are US citizens. In other words, the threat of family separation is still going to be used by forcing US citizens to choose whether or not they stay behind or join their family members who are facing deportation.

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